GAO Performance Budget FY 2026
GAO-25-900618 Fiscal Year 2026 Performance Plan 1
Fiscal Year 2026
Performance Plan
GAO Supports
Congressional Decision-
Making, Saves Taxpayer
Dollars, and Helps Improve
Government
The Government Accountability Office
(GAO) is the audit, evaluation, and
investigative arm of Congress. Commonly
known as the “congressional watchdog,” we
examine how taxpayer dollars are spent and
advise lawmakers and agency heads on
ways to make the government work better.
As a legislative branch agency, we are
exempt from many laws that apply to
executive branch agencies. However, we
generally hold ourselves to the spirit of
many such laws, including the Federal
Managers’ Financial Integrity Act of 1982
(FMFIA); the GPRA Modernization Act of
2010 (GPRAMA); and the Federal
Information Security Modernization Act of
2014 (FISMA).
Our audits and evaluations uniquely support
Congress--through original research,
technical assistance, and analyses--and
help it make informed decisions across the
federal budget while producing tangible
results and enhanced oversight. Our work
directly contributes to improvements in a
broad array of federal programs affecting
Americans everywhere.
We demonstrate our core values of
accountability, integrity, and reliability by
providing high-quality, high-value, and
independent support to Congress in ways
that generate material benefits to the nation.
Given our reputation for consistently
producing high-quality work based on
original research, it is not surprising that
congressional demand for our products and
services remains strong. During FY 2024,
we received requests for work from 93
percent of the full committees of Congress
and about 52 percent of their
subcommittees.
GAO continues to be one of the best
investments in the federal government. In
FY 2024, our work brought $67.5 billion in
financial benefits for the federal government
(a return of about $76 for every dollar
invested in GAO) and 1,232 in other
benefits that cannot be measured in dollars
but led to program and operational
improvements across the government.
Agencies and Congress typically implement
more than 70 percent of our
recommendations. Additional information on
our performance and accomplishments can
be found in our Performance and
Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2024.
1
In addition, GAO experts testified 60 times
before 39 separate committees or
subcommittees on topics including reducing
deferred maintenance on federal lands,
addressing DOD’s military readiness and
modernization challenges, improving the
federal response, recovery, and mitigation
efforts for wildfires, and addressing
challenges to lunar landing plans.
A list of selected testimony topics from FY
2024 is included in Table 1.
1
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-900570
