Since 2001, Pakistan has been a U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda and a recipient of both civilian and military assistance. Key areas where both countries share common concerns include IEDs, which not only cause the majority of fatalities among U.S. troops in Afghanistan but have also caused thousands of fatalities in Pakistan.

At any given time, the United States has military personnel serving abroad in forward-deployed locations to support U.S. strategic interests. The number of personnel and locations vary with the frequency and type of military operations and deployment demands. In general, operational control of U.S. military forces at forward-deployed locations is assigned to the nation's six geographic, unified overseas regional commands, including Central Command.

The Military Health System operated by DOD is large and complex and has a dual health care mission-readiness and benefits. The readiness mission provides medical services and support to the armed forces during contingency operations and involves deploying medical personnel and equipment, as needed, around the world to support military forces.

DOD is one of the largest and most complex organizations in the world, and is entrusted with more taxpayer dollars than any other federal department or agency. For fiscal year 2013, the department requested approximately $613.9 billion-$525.4 billion in spending authority for its base operations and an additional $88.5 billion to support overseas contingency operations, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Section 9 of the Communications Act authorizes FCC to collect regulatory fees annually.These regulatory fees do not include application fees or revenue from spectrum auctions.

The H-2A program was preceded by several other temporary worker programs designed to address farm labor shortages in the United States. During World War I, the Congress authorized the issuance of rules providing for the temporary admission of otherwise inadmissible aliens, and this led to the establishment of a temporary farm labor program designed to replace U.S. workers directly involved in the war effort.

In summary, our 2013 annual report identifies 31 new areas where agencies may be able to achieve greater efficiency or effectiveness. Within these 31 areas, we identify 81 actions that the executive branch or Congress could take to address the issues we identified.

The federal government faces an array of challenges and opportunities to enhance performance, ensure accountability, and position the nation for the future. A number of overarching trends, such as fiscal sustainability and debt challenges, demographic and societal changes, developments in science and technology, diffuse security threats, global interdependence, and the rapid expansion of collaborative networks, underscore the need for a fundamental reconsideration of the role, operations, and structure of the federal government for the 21st century.

In 2003, we first designated federal disability programs as a high-risk area because the programs require urgent attention and organizational transformation to ensure that they function in the most economical, efficient, and effective manner possible.We have also reported that improving work participation among people with disabilities has been challenging in part because the United States has a patchwork of disability programs developed individually over many years and lacks a unified set of national goals that guide coordination among programs or contribute to measuring desired outcomes.

This high risk update is intended to help inform the oversight agenda for the 113th Congress and guide efforts of the administration and agencies to improve government performance and reduce waste and risks. GAO is providing this update to the President and Vice President, congressional leadership, other Members of Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and the heads of major departments and agencies.