Fiscal Year 2001 Budget Request

Maintaining and enhancing GAO's ability to serve Congress in today's rapidly changing global environment present several challenges. Although GAO is 40 percent smaller today than in 1992, congressional demand for the agency's work continues to increase. At the same time, in a period of fiscal restraint, GAO cannot expect significant increases in its budget or in its staffing level. In response to this reality of constrained resources and rising demand for its services, GAO is taking steps to maximize its effectiveness; manage risks; and boost staff productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. During the last year, GAO launched a client outreach effort to help it better meet congressional needs, issued a draft strategic plan that spells out the current and emerging issues that GAO will likely focus on during the next six years, strengthened communication within the agency, began redesigning its employee performance appraisal system, and replaced obsolete computer hardware and software. GAO will be seeking legislative authority that will give the agency additional flexibility to manage its most important resource--human capital. The legislation would allow GAO to offer early-outs to selected employees in order to avoid a workforce imbalance that could undermine the agency's future ability to serve Congress. To improve its ability to hire technical talent, such as computer specialists and actuaries, GAO will also seek authority to offer these individuals salaries at senior executive levels. For fiscal year 2001, GAO is requesting $402.9 million. The funding increase would cover mandatory cost-of-living adjustments in federal pay and uncontrollable cost increases in transportation, supplies, contracts, and other essential mission support services. GAO would also be able to undertake a host of much-needed initiatives, from strengthening its programs that recognize and reward employee performance to upgrading its network software. GAO continues to deliver a tremendous return on investment. In fiscal year 1999, for every dollar spent on GAO, the agency's work yielded financial benefits of about $57--or about $20.1 billion in total. GAO's fiscal year 2001 budget request is designed to strengthen the agency so that it can remain a valuable asset to Congress and, ultimately, the American people.

GAO noted that: (1) for FY 2001, GAO is requesting $402.9 million in budget authority to permit it to maintain current operations while GAO continues to realign the organization to better serve Congress; (2) GAO's funding level increase will provide for: (a) mandatory pay and benefits costs resulting primarily from federal cost-of-living and locality pay adjustments, increased participation in the Federal Employees Retirement System, and an increase in the estimated number of retirees; and (b) uncontrollable price-level increases in transportation, lodging, printing, supplies, contracts, and other essential mission services; (3) GAO also plans to continue the initiatives GAO began in FY 2000 to restructure the agency to support its goals of improving service to Congress; (4) these initiatives include realigning organizations to increase its flexibility and support broader, more diverse advances to maximize its responsiveness to congressional needs; (5) the requested increase for these changes includes funding for: (a) GAO performance awards and recognition program; (b) organizational, behavioral, and technological training; (c) reengineering GAO's non-evaluator performance appraisal system; and (d) upgrading network software used to carry out GAO's work processes; (6) GAO is requesting authority to use anticipated revenue from audit work at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and rental income from GAO's future building tenant, the Army Corps of Engineers, to continue asbestos removal and offset building renovations and maintenance costs; and (7) due to diminished value over the last 10 years, GAO is seeking a nominal increase in the amount authorized for representation expenses of the Comptroller General to adjust for inflation and accommodate a higher volume of strategic planning and engagement execution meetings with heads of audit agencies from other countries.