What GAO Found The Governmentwide Treasury Account Symbol Adjusted Trial Balance System (GTAS) is the central platform federal agencies use to submit standardized data for government-wide financial reporting. GTAS collects budgetary and proprietary data; validates them; and interfaces with other federal systems to support transparency, accountability, and fiscal oversight. Federal laws, including the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996, and the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act), require agencies to report standardized financial data. These laws assign implementation responsibilities to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of the Treasury, which issue guidance on budget formulation, technical instructions on GTAS reporting procedures, U.S. Standard General Ledger crosswalks, and attribute requirements. Together, this guidance governs how agencies complete various accounting, validation, and reporting procedures. Through a combination of manual and automated interfaces, GTAS exchanges data with fiduciary authoritative source agencies and major government-wide accounting systems, including the following: Central Accounting Reporting System (CARS) DATA Act Broker Government Invoicing (G-Invoicing) OMB Max Simplified Overview of Selected Data Inflows to and Outflows from GTAS Why GAO Did This Study GTAS plays a central role in the financial management and transparency of the U.S. federal government. It supports a wide array of government financial operations, helping to ensure the accurate reporting of intragovernmental transactions, cash flow, and other financial activities. Federal entities use GTAS as a key system to report financial and budgetary execution information to Treasury. Treasury, in coordination with OMB, uses this information to prepare the annual financial report of the U.S. government. The financial report provides the President, Congress, and the public with a comprehensive view of the federal government’s finances—its revenue, debt, and expenditures. The Government Management Reform Act of 1994 includes a provision for GAO to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government. Because of the importance of GTAS in preparing these financial statements and ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the data, GAO conducted this review to provide a system overview. This report describes the (1) laws and guidance relevant to government-wide financial reporting requirements and the use of GTAS for that purpose, (2) major government-wide accounting systems that interface with GTAS, and (3) data flow and validation processes of GTAS. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed applicable laws, Treasury and OMB guidance, and GTAS system documentation. GAO also discussed GTAS data transmission and validation processes with Treasury officials. Treasury stated the agency did not have any comments on the report. For more information, contact Paula M. Rascona at RasconaP@gao.gov.

What GAO Found The federal government is on an unsustainable fiscal path that poses serious economic, national security, and societal challenges if not addressed. Nearly every year this century, the government has spent more than it collected in revenue. To finance these deficits, the government has had to borrow by issuing debt. If current spending and revenue policies continue, the nation’s fiscal outlook is projected to deteriorate further, as debt accumulates at a faster rate than the economy grows. GAO projects that under current revenue and spending policies, debt held by the public will reach its historical high of 106 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2029 and grow to 251 percent of GDP in 2056. Debt Held by the Public Projected to Grow Faster than the Economy Projected deficits are driven by projected growth in program spending—largely from Social Security, Medicare, and other federal health care programs—and in interest costs. Under current policy, spending on net interest will be the fastest growing portion of the federal budget and represent an increasingly large share of total spending. The magnitude of policy changes needed to create a sustainable fiscal future for the federal government requires a coordinated strategy that includes fiscal rules to encourage fiscal discipline (and as an alternative to the debt limit); builds consensus about how to reduce annual deficits; addresses financing gaps in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds before they are depleted in 2032 and 2033, respectively; and considers other opportunities to improve fiscal responsibility. Congress and the administration will need to make difficult budgetary and policy decisions to address the key drivers of debt and improve the government’s fiscal outlook. The longer actions are delayed, the more dramatic they will need to be. Why GAO Did This Study GAO produces this annual fiscal health report to examine the current fiscal condition of the federal government and its future fiscal outlook, absent policy changes in revenue and program spending. The report is based on the results of GAO's fiscal simulation using information available as of February 2026. This report presents GAO’s projections—under current policy—of (1) federal debt; (2) primary deficits (the gap between program spending and revenue); (3) interest costs and (4) revenue and spending changes needed for a sustainable fiscal outlook.

What GAO Found Since 2021, F-35 sustainment costs have continued to increase, but the F-35 has not met performance goals and performance has trended down. Across the fleet from fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2025: The mission capable rate (percentage of time the aircraft can perform one of its tasked missions) declined from 67 percent to 44 percent. The full mission capable rate (percentage of time the aircraft can perform all of its missions) declined from 38 percent to 25 percent. In response, the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) updated its sustainment strategy, which it refers to as the Global Support Solution (GSS) Reset. The GSS Reset requires an estimated $13.7 billion more than previously planned through fiscal year 2031 and seeks to address challenges GAO previously identified, including a lack of spare parts and heavy reliance on contractors. GAO found that multiple risks threaten JPO’s ability to achieve GSS Reset goals. For example, JPO will be reliant on the private sector to deliver more than $7 billion in additional parts and other material. But capacity constraints persist for key parts. Estimated costs for the F-35 also continue to increase. As a result, the U.S. military services will annually face a more than $1 billion gap between the projected costs to sustain their F-35s and their affordability goals by the mid-2030s. GSS Reset is a positive step toward addressing sustainment challenges, but risk mitigation plans would better position JPO to attain GSS Reset goals. Further, JPO’s use of contract incentives did not achieve F-35 readiness goals, due in part to JPO paying incentive fees for performance that did not align with service requirements (see figure). Until JPO ensures the future use of incentives better achieves desired performance, it risks rewarding contractor performance that does not help meet program goals. Minimum Full Mission Capable Rate (FMC) Requirements for Contractors to Receive a Portion of Incentive Fees Compared with Service Requirements, 2020–2023 Why GAO Did This Study The F-35 aircraft is the Department of Defense’s (DOD) most costly weapon system, with lifetime sustainment costs for the United States alone estimated at $1.6 trillion, as of 2024. DOD operates and sustains over 800 U.S. F-35s and plans to buy about 1,700 more aircraft by the mid-2040s. DOD uses the F-35 to perform a wide range of missions. It is vital to the success of U.S. combat operations and homeland defense, according to DOD. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, as amended, includes a provision for GAO to conduct an annual review of F-35 sustainment efforts. This report assesses the extent to which JPO has evaluated the performance of its sustainment strategy and managed sustainment responsibilities with contractors to achieve goals, among other objectives. GAO analyzed performance metrics, cost information, and sustainment contract incentive fee data for, among other things, full mission capable-related goals from 2020 through 2023, the last contract in which that metric was incentivized. GAO also reviewed relevant program documentation and interviewed DOD officials and contractor representatives.