Summary: Last year, in its first financial audit of the Library of Congress, GAO reported on several problems, including the unauthorized use of revolving gift funds. GAO was concerned that the Library had exceeded its statutory authority by running 12 revolving gift funds to finance activities like the sale of photo duplications, recordings, and publications. S. 2748 would remedy these concerns by giving the Library authority to transfer the revolving gift funds into a new consolidated revolving fund. GAO also supports a provision of the bill that would restrict obligations for the revolving fund activities to the amounts specified in the appropriations act for any fiscal year, thereby allowing for congressional oversight of the kinds of services to be provided through the fund. GAO also discussed three other issues relating to the proposed legislation: (1) the Library's needs for better accounting systems, procedures, and controls to accurately account and bill for the reimbursable activities; (2) the value of preparing annual financial statements for those activities and having them audited; and (3) the effect of investing revolving fund monies in public debt securities.
