So just, you know, if you want to touch on some of those reports and the implications you know, the role that improved tax compliance or combating, you know, certainly fraud and duplication can have in a sustainable budget.

Absolutely.

There are things that the government can do now that are short of, you know, raising tax rates to bring in revenue or cutting spending to lower the amount of spending that I think there are tweaks that we could make to the existing system that could really help.

So on the tax side, IRS, they regularly estimate, well, how much money that is supposed to come into the federal treasury doesn't come in for whatever reason.

Whether people intentionally are avoiding taxes or they make mistakes, they don't understand.

The last tax year for that estimate was 2022, so a few years ago, but it was over $600 billion.

That's compared... to about $4.5 trillion that we bring in in revenue.

What's the role that GAO has articulated for putting fiscal rules in place?

How is that organization working these days?

So the COFA is the most recent of many efforts that the federal government has had to collaborate on grants, to enable the various agencies that issue grants to come together, share best practices, tackle challenges that affect all agencies.

It's only been around for a couple of years now, so it's getting started.

But we're hopeful and certainly think that efforts like this are important.

We are hopeful that it will help it address some of these challenges and it's really was established to improve coordination.

Transparency and accountability of federal grants to have strategic direction across the government make policy recommendations that priorities for for government wide grants related activities.

And from what we found so far, again, it's just getting started, but we had some good input from agencies on how it's working, how it's been able to collectively address or provide input on guidance that the Office of Management and Budget is putting out.

Do you see here a tension between trying to make grants programs easy to access for the grantees versus putting the overhead in place, the compliance processes in place to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse?

How is that organization working these days?

days?So the COFA is the most recent of, of many efforts that the federal government has had to collaborate on, on grants, to, to enable the various agencies that issue grants to come together, uh, share best practices, tackle challenges that affect all agencies.

Uh, it's only been around for a couple of years now, so it's getting started.

But we're, w- you know, we're hopeful and, and certainly think that efforts like this are important.

We are hopeful that it'll help, uh, address some of these challenges, and it's really, it was established to improve coordination, uh, transparency, and accountability of federal grants to have strategic direction across the government, uh, make policy recommendations, set priorities for, for government-wide grants related activities.

And from what we've found so far, again, it's just getting started, but we had some, some good input from, from agencies on, on how it's working, how it's been able to collectively address or, or provide input on guidance that the Office of Management and Budget is, is putting out.

And it'll be an interesting issue to, or topic to watch in the coming years to see really how effective it can be.

Do you see here a tension between trying to make grants programs easy to access for the grantees versus putting the overhead in place, the compliance processes in place to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse?