Issa Statement on GAO High Risk List

WASHINGTON- House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., offered the following statement on the United States Government Accountability Office 2013 High-Risk List:
 
“The GAO’s latest High Risk List includes seventeen items that have been on the list more than a decade, and six that have been on the list since it began in 1990,” said Issa. “The inability of government to effectively address ongoing concerns about health care and insurance programs that have become fixtures on the high risk list, as well as new additions like our government’s ability to prepare for and respond to future weather events and concerns about the solvency of the Federal Housing Agency, are all reminders that taxpayers deserve better from their government.”

The 2013 report again includes 30 “high risk” designations.  Key remaining areas include:

• Medicare and Medicaid, which cost a combined $990 billion in FY 2012;
• Federal disability insurance, which cost $810 billion in FY 2012;
• The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which ran a $34 billion deficit in FY 2012.

Additions include:

• Limiting the Federal Government’s Fiscal Exposure by Better Managing Climate Change Risks;
• Mitigating Gaps in Weather Satellite Data;
• The solvency of the Federal Housing Agency and the role of government in housing finance. 

The Oversight Committee is hosting a hearing where GAO U.S. Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro will testify on the report. The hearing can be viewed live now at https://oversight.house.gov/.
 
The GAO High Risk List can be viewed at http://www.gao.gov/highrisk