GAO Report Examines Implications of Standardizing Federal Agencies’ Global Regions

In 2011, legislation was proposed that would have required uniform service regions for all Connecticut state agencies (i.e., a Southwest region, a Central region, etc.). However, a recent federal report shows that this concept is not as simple as it may appear.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined this issue at the federal level as it pertains to federal agencies’ organization of their global regions. GAO found that a common alignment of world regions would present agencies with a number of challenges. It noted that different geographic alignments are due to agency-specific mission objectives, as well as cultural, historical, or economic connections among countries. For instance, the Department of Defense has India and Pakistan in separate geographic combatant commands, but the Department of State has the countries in the same regional bureau.