Federal Reports

HHS-OIG'S Semiannual Report to Congress describes OIG's work identifying significant risks, problems, abuses, deficiencies, remedies, and investigative outcomes relating to the administration of HHS programs and operations that were disclosed during the semiannual reporting period October 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021.

This report summarizes work that we initiated and completed during this semiannual period on a number of critical Departmental activities. Over the past 6 months—in addition to issuing our annual Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing the Department of Commerce—our office issued 20 products related to our audit, evaluation, inspection, and public investigative work. These products addressed programs and personnel associated with the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority), International Trade Administration (ITA), United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the Department itself. This report also describes our investigative activities addressing programs and personnel associated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department itself.

In June 2020, we received letters from members of Congress, including the chairpersons of the House Committee on Financial Services and Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee, expressing concern that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) imposed a new, nonpublic, and legally erroneous policy that prohibited issuing Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. The letters included a concern that HUD had made DACA borrowers ineligible by changing residency requirements within the FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook (HUD Handbook 4000.1) in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. In response to the letters from Congress, we announced an evaluation with the following objectives in December 2020.To determine1. whether HUD provided lenders with uniform and accurate guidance regarding borrower residency requirements outlined in HUD Handbook 4000.1 and2. how HUD oversees residency eligibility requirements for single-family borrowers.In January 2021, HUD announced that DACA recipients that are legally permitted to work in the United States may apply for FHA-insured mortgages, effective January 19, 2021. HUD shared its announcement through its FHA INFO email subscription so that FHA-approved lending partners would be aware of the change. HUD also posted the announcement to its waiver database website. To prepare to respond to inquiries from the public, HUD updated two Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) files, and created an additional FAQ file in its FHA Resource Center to reflect the announcement. HUD plans to update HUD Handbook 4000.1 to reflect the announced eligibility change by approximately April 2021.As a result of HUD’s policy update, we have closed our evaluation.

What We Looked AtThe Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) is a multibillion dollar infrastructure project aimed at modernizing our Nation's aging air traffic system to provide safer and more efficient air traffic management. Since 2006, our office and others have identified a number of challenges to implementing NextGen programs and capabilities, which have led to program delays and lower usage of new capabilities. Given these concerns, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 mandated that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) study the potential impacts of a significantly delayed, diminished, or completely failed delivery of NextGen. Our audit objectives were to (1) compare the current expected benefits of NextGen with the initial projections and identify the reasons for revising those projections and (2) identify lessons learned from developing and implementing significant air traffic modernization programs.What We FoundNextGen's actual and projected benefits have not kept pace with initial projections due to implementation challenges, optimistic assumptions, and other factors. FAA's most recent business case projects total NextGen benefits to be over $100 billion less than the Joint Planning and Development Office's original estimate, and benefits actually achieved to date have been minimal and difficult to measure. FAA's projections were optimistic about traffic growth and did not account for risk factors. We also found that significant declines in air traffic due to COVID-19 have further extended the timeframe for realizing expected NextGen benefits. In addition, prior OIG NextGen-related work has identified lessons that FAA could use to improve NextGen delivery. For example, while FAA has collaborated with industry to prioritize, implement, and measure benefits of NextGen programs, there are still opportunities for improving transparency, which will be critical to secure industry's long-term investment. Further advancing NextGen will depend on resolving complex implementation challenges, including effectively prioritizing programs, integrating interdependent capabilities, and harnessing controller automation tools to achieve benefits.Our RecommendationsFAA concurred with our three recommendations to improve NextGen delivery and other future National Airspace System modernization efforts, and provided appropriate actions and completion dates. Accordingly, we consider all recommendations resolved but open pending completion of the planned actions.