About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-24-107345 1 (2024-09-10)

handle is hein.gao/gaoqtj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 September 10, 2024 The Honorable Tom Vilsack Secretary of Agriculture Emergency Relief Program 2022: FSA Should Publicly Report Progress in Issuing Payments Dear Mr. Secretary: The Emergency Relief Program 2022 (ERP 2022) is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to help agricultural producers who experienced crop or other losses caused by natural disasters in calendar year 2022. Congress provided $3.7 billion for ERP 2022. We were asked to examine how USDA developed ERP 2022, how the payment methodology used affects payments to producers, and actions USDA has taken to ensure producers meet program requirements. We requested information from FSA in March 2024, including data on ERP 2022 payments and other documents. In June 2024, FSA officials cited a March 2024 lawsuit and a June 2024 court-ordered injunction as reasons for suspending their participation in our audit. The order prohibits FSA from making or increasing payments based on socially disadvantaged status when calculating ERP 2022 payments, among other things. FSA has not provided the information we requested in March 2024 or allowed officials to meet with us since our initial meeting with the agency in March 2024. However, we are encouraged by our July 2024 conversation with your office about providing us with the information we need to conduct our work. We are sending this management letter to identify a transparency issue FSA should address regarding the status of ERP 2022 payments and to make a related recommendation. We will continue our broader review of ERP 2022 when FSA provides the information we requested, and we plan to issue a final report in the future. We conducted this performance audit from January 2024 to September 2024 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. GAO-24-107345 Emergency Relief Program 2022 Page 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most