Federal Reports

This report contains the results of our assessment of the effectiveness of the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) internal control over the pre-dissemination review (PDR) of scientific information, and the CPSC’s compliance with relevant laws and regulations regarding the PDR of scientific information.  We determined that the CPSC had inadequate policies and procedures for identifying the type of influential information that might require peer review and inadequate internal controls over the PDR process in general.  Current agency management generally concurred with our findings and recommendations and have reported that they have already taken initial corrective action regarding some of the issues raised in our report.

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a healthcare inspection at the Western North Carolina VA Health Care System (system) to assess concerns brought forward in October 2025 by an OIG Healthcare Facility Inspection team regarding issue briefs related to sentinel events and falls at the North Carolina State Veterans Home (SVH) in Black Mountain, North Carolina (Black Mountain SVH). The OIG initiated the inspection on January 5, 2026, conducted a virtual site visit from January 20 through 22, 2026, and continued inspection activities through early February 2026.

The OIG determined facility, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN), and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) leaders were aware of patient safety events, including sentinel events, at the Black Mountain SVH as reported by SVH staff. From August 2024 through December 2025, facility staff completed 13 issue briefs in response to the reported patient safety events to alert VISN and VHA Geriatrics and Extended Care (GEC) leaders. Eleven of the issue briefs were related to resident falls, while two involved resident injuries unrelated to falls. The Black Mountain SVH determined 2 of the 13 events were sentinel events—resident falls resulting in injury and subsequent death—and were reported timely to the VA medical facility representative. Further, the OIG determined facility, VISN, and GEC leaders responded to SVH sentinel events as required by VHA—both sentinel event issue briefs, and associated updates, were provided to the VISN liaison for review, approval, and submission to the GEC SVH National Program Manager.

The OIG made no recommendations.

We assessed public housing agencies’ (PHA) management of the occupancy of public housing units.  Our audit objective was to (1) assess the occupancy of public housing units, and (2) determine whether HUD had adequate oversight of PHAs’ occupancy, particularly PHAs’ management of vacant units.
 

We found PHAs had occupancy rates below HUD’s optimal level or a high number of long-term vacant units.  Further, although HUD monitors PHAs’ occupancy rates, it does not require very small PHAs or all PHAs with a high number of long-term vacant units take action to address vacancies.

These conditions occurred because PHAs experienced delays in turning over vacant units, especially units that required extensive repairs, due to (1) a lack of financial and staffing resources, including contractors, (2) inadequate processes or management oversight, and (3) holding vacant units offline to relocate tenants from units or buildings that were being repaired, renovated, demolished, or converted under HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD).  Additionally, some PHAs’ units were vacant because they were uninhabitable due to fires, natural disasters, or deterioration.  Further, HUD’s current risk mitigation action plan requires HUD staff to execute occupancy action plans for only PHAs with occupancy rates below 90 percent and 50 or more vacant units.  

As a result, PHAs were not consistently maximizing occupancy, resulting in fewer eligible families benefiting from affordable housing.  In addition, the PHAs that we reviewed lost the opportunity to receive operating subsidies and earn rental revenue for vacant units, totaling nearly $80 million in 2024 and more than $106 million in 2025.
 

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations (1) revise its Risk Mitigation Action Plan to include risk indicators to target PHAs with long-term vacant units and assess PHAs’ unit turnover timeliness; and (2) include a review of the physical condition of PHAs’ vacant units and turnovers as part of its field office staff’s monitoring activities.  We also recommend that HUD require PHAs to implement adequate procedures and controls over vacant units to help ensure that potential rent revenue and operating subsidies are not lost on vacant units and evaluate the physical condition of long-term vacant units and develop a plan to address the units, as appropriate.

Our Semiannual Report to Congress covering the period October 2025 to March 2026 highlights the OIG’s audit and investigative accomplishments during the past 6 months.

This report provides an overview of the work of the Office of Inspector General during the period of October 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026.

The report summarizes the FTC OIG’s activities and accomplishments during the first half of the FY 2026 reporting period.