Federal Reports

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) conducts minimal secondary inspections on passengers and crew disembarking cruise ships to prevent illicit drugs and contraband from entering the United States.  As a result, CBP may be missing opportunities to interdict these items, which could adversely affect public health and safety. 

We examined two of six pillars identified in the April 2022 DHS Plan for Southwest Border Security and Preparedness aimed at preparing for anticipated increases in migration after the end of Title 42, which prohibited introduction into the United States of certain people from foreign countries traveling from Canada or Mexico, regardless of their countries of origin.  We found that the Department of Homeland Security generally implemented the two pillars we reviewed, which focused on surging resources to the Southwest border and increasing efficiencies for migrant processing.   • DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) increased personnel resources through CBP agent and officer details, support from DHS components and Federal partners, contract support, and the DHS Volunteer Force.   • DHS also expanded ground and air transportation capacity through agreements and contracts, and CBP increased its holding capacity through expanded or new soft-sided facilities.   • CBP developed a medical support plan and added contract medical support personnel.  To expedite the movement of aliens out of CBP custody, DHS co-located personnel, tested new technology, and streamlined and digitized alien processing. We found the Department can prepare more efficiently and effectively for future alien surges.  Although DHS and CBP preparations helped CBP generally meet detention standards, during our on-site inspections we found that two sectors experienced overcrowding in single adult male holding rooms.  Although not specified in the DHS plan, CBP did not consistently use the designated system to manage resource requests, which resulted in unfulfilled requests.   Data Access: CBP denied us access to CBP One, Unified Secondary, and e3.  CBP instead provided data extracts, which limited OIG’s ability to perform comprehensive assessments and delayed the review. 

Report on the Performance Audit over High-Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) Portal Data

In April 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency published the Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals [CCR] from Electric Utilities (commonly referred to as the CCR Rule), which set forth national regulations for the safe disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants.  On May 8, 2024, the United States Environmental Protection Agency finalized changes to the CCR Rule to include additional classes of regulated CCR storage facilities.  The CCR Rule requires that applicable CCR units be inspected both weekly for any appearances of actual or potential structural weakness and annually to ensure that the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the CCR unit is consistent with recognized engineering standards.  In addition, the CCR Rule requires monthly monitoring of all CCR unit instrumentation for surface impoundments.  

We determined TVA performed required inspections and maintenance of CCR storage facilities.  Additionally, inspections identified no significant deficiencies, and all deficiencies and high priority instrumentation maintenance issues identified were resolved timely or had plans in place for resolution. However, we also determined (1) TVA did not maintain a comprehensive list of instrumentation requiring monitoring, (2) some issues were not identified in inspections and some instrumentation issues were not resolved, (3) remediation of minor issues identified during annual inspections was not documented, (4) annual inspection reports did not document review of weekly inspections, and (5) some inspectors did not have required training.