U.S. Government Accountability Office

FILE- In this file image from video provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, a sign language interpreter, lower left, signs for acting director of the U.S. Census Bureau Ron Jarmin, who is speaking off camera, as a graphic showing the U.S. population as of April 1, 2020, is displayed during a virtual news conference. When U.S. Census Bureau workers couldn't find out any information about some households after repeatedly mailing them questionnaire reminders and sending census takers to knock on their doors, the statisticians turned to an obscure, last-resort statistical technique known as “imputation.” Less than 1% of households were counted using the technique during the 2020 census. But some conservative political groups are questioning it, potentially laying a foundation for legal challenges to the data that will ultimately be used for drawing congressional and legislative districts. (U.S. Census Bureau via AP)

Report says technology kept 2020 census below expected cost

By Mike Schneider Jun. 14, 2021 04:22 PM EDT

A Palestinian flag flies over the annual Land Day rally in the Arab city of Arraba, northern Israel, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. Land Day rallies by Palestinians protest what they say are discriminatory policies and to commemorate the deaths of six Arab protesters who were killed by police on March 30, 1976, while demonstrating against an Israeli plan to confiscate Arab land. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Biden administration quietly ramping up aid to Palestinians

By Matthew Lee Mar. 31, 2021 11:44 AM EDT

FILE - This March 19, 2020, file photo, shows a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident. Alabama on Wednesday became the second state to challenge the U.S. Census Bureau's decision to delay by six months the release of data used for redrawing congressional and legislative districts, as it took aim at the accuracy of a privacy protection system that it alleged is holding up the process.(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Lawmakers frustrated over delay in Census redistricting data

By Mike Schneider Mar. 23, 2021 05:34 PM EDT

Pandemic loan program at high-risk for fraud, auditor finds

By Kevin Freking Mar. 02, 2021 11:34 AM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Emergency loans made to small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic have been added to a list of government programs considered at high...

FILE - A pharmacist fills a dead volume syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination site at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021, in the Bronx borough of New York. The U.S. Government Accountability Office is making some new recommendations related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The office has continued to report on its ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts related to the pandemic. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

GAO makes new recommendations related to pandemic response

By Michelle Chapman Jan. 28, 2021 10:02 AM EST

Diners eat lunch outside at Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020, in Pasadena, Calif. Pasadena has become an island in the center of the nation's most populous county, where a surge of COVID-19 cases last week led to a three-week end to outdoor dining and California's first stay-home order since the pandemic began to spread across the state in March. The decision by Pasadena health authorities to buck Los Angeles County has been a relief to restaurateurs who have struggled to stay afloat amid closures, ever-changing rules and attempts to keep workers on the job and money in the till. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

US jobless claims remain high at 712,000 as virus escalates

By Paul Wiseman Dec. 03, 2020 08:35 AM EST

FILE - In this March 6, 2014, file photo, empty nuclear waste shipping containers sit in front of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The U.S. government's efforts to clean up decades worth of Cold War-era waste from nuclear research and bomb making at federal sites around the country has chugged along, often at a pace that watchdogs and other critics say threatens public health and the environment. Now, fallout from the global coronavirus pandemic is resulting in more challenges as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation's only underground repository for nuclear waste, finished ramping down operations Wednesday, April 1, 2020, to keep workers safe. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

Watchdog: US nuclear dump facing space, staffing challenges

By Susan Montoya Bryan Dec. 01, 2020 11:45 AM EST

FILE - In this May 6, 2020, file photo, a sign stands outside the Department of Labor's headquarters in Washington. A government watchdog has found that the Labor Department’s widely watched weekly unemployment benefits data are providing an inaccurate reading on the number of newly laid off workers because of flaws in the government’s data collection. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

GAO says weekly unemployment benefits report flawed

By Martin Crutsinger Nov. 30, 2020 03:31 PM EST

FILE - This Jan. 3, 2020, file photo, shows oil derricks owned by Extraction Oil & Gas pump near the intersection of Colorado Highway 392 and Weld County Road 25 near Windsor in Weld County, Colo. The Government Accountability Office, a U.S. government watchdog agency, s faulting the Trump administration’s handling of a COVID-19 relief effort that awarded energy companies breaks on payments for oil and gas extracted from public lands in Western states in more than 500 cases. (Alex McIntyre/The Greeley Tribune via AP, File)

Trump administration faulted over breaks for oil companies

By Matthew Brown Oct. 06, 2020 12:55 PM EDT

Administration: 70% of relief payments to the dead recovered

By Martin Crutsinger Aug. 31, 2020 06:19 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration says that it has recovered nearly 70% of the government relief payments that went to dead people. ...

A briefcase of a census taker is seen as she knocks on the door of a residence Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020, in Winter Park, Fla. A half-million census takers head out en mass this week to knock on the doors of households that haven't yet responded to the 2020 census. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Watchdog chastises Census for missing laptops used for count

By Mike Schneider Aug. 17, 2020 02:45 PM EDT

FILE - In this July 26, 2020, file photo, federal officers launch tear gas at demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Ore. The Associated Press found that there is no government oversight of the manufacture and use of tear gas. Instead, the industry is left to regulate itself. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Lack of study and oversight raises concerns about tear gas

By Andrew Selsky Aug. 06, 2020 01:13 AM EDT

Attorney William Bennett, representing former superintendent of the Soldier's Home in Holyoke, Bennett Walsh, holds a press conference Thursday, July 23, 2020 at the Springfield Sheraton Hotel to dispute arguments against Walsh in the COVID-19 breakout at the Home. (Don Treeger/The Republican via AP)

Gaps in federal oversight add to virus woes at vets homes

By Hope Yen Jul. 29, 2020 10:18 AM EDT

FILE - In this July 4, 2019 file photo, fireworks go off over the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Thursday, July 4, 2019. The Trump administration is promising one of the largest fireworks displays in recent memory for Washington on July 4. It also plans to give away as many as 300,000 face masks to those who come down to the National Mall, although they won't be required to wear them. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Trump plans huge July 4 fireworks show despite DC's concerns

By Ellen Knickmeyer And Ashraf Khalil Jul. 01, 2020 12:35 PM EDT

FILE - In this July 4, 2019, file photo fireworks go off over the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Government watchdogs say President Trump’s 2019 Fourth of July gala in the nation’s capital cost taxpayers more than $13 million, twice as much as previous celebrations. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Watchdogs: Trump's Independence Day gala in 2019 cost $13M

By Ellen Knickmeyer Jun. 25, 2020 03:31 PM EDT

FILE - In this April 21, 2020, file photo Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. The Trump administration has abruptly dropped on Friday, June 19, its insistence on secrecy for a $600 billion-plus coronavirus aid program for small businesses. Mnuchin refused to do so at a Senate hearing last week, saying the data was “proprietary information.” (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Audit: US sent $1.4B in virus relief payments to dead people

By Marcy Gordon Jun. 25, 2020 11:57 AM EDT

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks during a Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing to examine implementation of Title I of the CARES Act, Wednesday, June 10, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Al Drago/Pool via AP)

Treasury chief refusing to disclose recipients of virus aid

By Marcy Gordon And Mary Clare Jalonick Jun. 13, 2020 12:34 AM EDT

Treasury chief refusing to disclose recipients of virus aid

By Marcy Gordon And Mary Clare Jalonick Jun. 12, 2020 05:09 PM EDT

US public schools need major building repairs, report finds

By Collin Binkley Jun. 04, 2020 01:30 PM EDT
The majority of U.S. public school districts need to make major building repairs in at least half of their schools, yet many districts are unable to pay for...

FILE - In this April 30, 2020 file photo Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma speaks about protecting seniors, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Federal authorities aren’t setting any hard dates for when nursing homes can allow family members to visit again. “We’re urging governors to proceed with extreme caution because these are the most vulnerable citizens. We know that nursing homes have struggled,” said Seema Verma, head of CMS, in a phone interview, Monday, May 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)

Watchdog cites persistent infection lapses in nursing homes

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar May. 20, 2020 01:00 PM EDT