The federal government's own auditors have spent fifteen years writing reports, issuing recommendations, and tracking the results in a public database. Congress has spent fifteen years largely ignoring them. The tab is now over $100 billion.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual duplication and waste report on May 12, 2026. When Washington acts on these findings, they produce real money: Recommendations implemented since 2011 have saved $774.3 billion. A Medicaid waiver policy change at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) saved $169.8 billion between 2016 and 2024. An Office of Management and Budget (OMB)-led purchasing initiative saved $48.8 billion between 2017 and 2021. Tightened Small Business Administration (SBA) oversight of pandemic loans flagged 3 million suspicious applications, referred 2.46 million for likely fraud, and saved $16.6 billion.
Washington rarely acts. Of the 2,148 matters and recommendations GAO has issued since 2011, 610 remain open, and 486 are completely unaddressed. Legislation was introduced in the last two Congresses to address 30 of those open matters. Not one was enacted into law.
"Fully addressing the remaining open matters and recommendations could yield financial benefits of one hundred billion dollars or more."
The largest single item is a Medicare payment disparity that has been sitting open since 2016. Congress could save $156.9 billion over ten years, per the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), simply by equalizing what Medicare pays hospitals versus independent physicians for identical services. Right now, hospitals collect significantly more, driving consolidation and inflating program costs with no corresponding patient benefit.
A related problem involves the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which creates financial incentives for hospitals to prescribe more drugs, or more expensive drugs, than Medicare Part B patients need. CBO puts the potential savings from fixing that at tens of billions.
The Department of Energy is spending tens of billions on nuclear cleanup that may be legally unnecessary. An ambiguous definition of "high-level radioactive waste" forces the agency to apply its costliest treatment standards to material that could qualify for a far cheaper classification. GAO added a new recommendation in 2026, estimating tens of billions in savings if Congress clarifies the statute.
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The FirstNet public-safety broadband network needs reauthorization before 2027, or $15 billion in payments the program has authority to collect disappears with it.
In 2023, the federal government paid $1.6 billion in potential overpayments for roughly 500,000 individuals enrolled in health coverage across multiple states simultaneously. More than $320 million in SNAP benefits was stolen between October 2022 and December 2024, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) still has not evaluated whether state prevention measures work.
Thirteen agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), run overlapping anti-scam programs with no shared data.
"There is no government-wide, national strategy for combating scams, and these agencies do not collaborate with each other on collecting and reporting data on the prevalence of scams."
That recommendation remains open.
Since 2008 — seventeen years ago — GAO has recommended Congress expand Internal Revenue Service (IRS) third-party reporting requirements and authorize the agency to regulate paid tax preparers, steps the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimates could yield billions in additional compliance revenue. Congress could also require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to offset Disability Insurance against Unemployment Insurance collected in the same period, saving $2.2 billion over ten years per OMB. Both recommendations are still open.
Congress did not merely recommend that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) audit ineligible dependents in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program — it required it, through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. CBO puts the savings at more than $1 billion over nine years.
As of March 2026, the audit was not done. Congress passed a law. The agency ignored it.
The 2026 deficit is $1.9 trillion. The debt is headed toward $63.7 trillion by 2036. GAO tracks every open recommendation in a public spreadsheet, updated in real time, with the responsible agency and estimated savings listed for anyone who wants to look.
The failure to act is not a secret. At some point, it stops being an oversight and starts being a choice.
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