Page 1 GAO-24-107595 Risk-Informed Decision-Making
Across the federal government, agencies are tasked with making decisions about
how best to use taxpayer resources to reduce risks to human health and the
environment posed by environmental hazards such as polluted soil and water.
For example, federal agencies must decide how to best clean up legacy
contamination at sites across the country and how to address the presence of
chemicals and other hazards in the environment. These decisions range in scale
and complexity, but involve balancing the benefits of reducing human health and
environmental risks with the costs of doing so. The U.S. government’s
environmental liability—the estimated cost to the federal government of cleaning
up environmental contamination from past activities—was $645 billion in fiscal
year 2023 and is expected to continue to grow.
Decisions about how to address human health and environmental risks posed by
environmental hazards are informed by—but not solely based on—risks and
costs. Agencies must also weigh and balance other factors, such as legal and
regulatory requirements and the diverse values and perspectives of those
interested in or affected by the decision. Data limitations and other sources of
uncertainty also influence these decisions. To help agencies make effective and
credible decisions when faced with trade-offs among risks, costs, and other
factors, we issued a framework for risk-informed decision-making in September
2019. This report presents an updated version of the risk-informed decision-
making framework with new information about its application and scope.
We prepared this report under the authority of the Comptroller General in light of
congressional interest in the effective and efficient use of taxpayer dollars in
addressing environmental hazards. This report describes GAO’s risk-informed
decision-making framework for human health and environmental risks posed by
environmental hazards, describes why and how federal agencies can use a risk-
informed decision-making framework, and examines the phases and steps in the
framework.
• We developed the risk-informed decision-making framework to serve as a
guide for managing and overseeing federal decision-making processes
regarding environmental hazards. We designed the framework for any federal
decision-making process that involves limited resources, risks to human
health and the environment posed by environmental hazards, diverse values
and perspectives of those interested in and affected by the decision, and
uncertainty.
• The framework consists of four phases. Each phase consists of multiple
steps that describe what should occur in each phase.
• The framework can be applied to all scales and types of decisions, from
selecting the best option at a single site, to prioritizing projects across a
U.S. Government Accountability Office
Environmental Hazards: A Framework for Risk
-
-Making
-24-107595
Report to Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives
23, 2024
