GAO's report opens on one sentence: "Sexual misconduct in the U.S. Coast Guard is a longstanding problem."
The rest is a progress check, required by Congress in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, on a plan the Coast Guard has now been carrying out for almost three years.
Why there is a plan at all
In 2020 an internal Coast Guard investigation called Operation Fouled Anchor examined more than 100 allegations of sexual assault at the Coast Guard Academy between 1990 and 2006, and concluded that the academy had often mishandled them. Congress was not told. In GAO's words: "The service did not notify Congress of Operation Fouled Anchor until media reporting was imminent, potentially impairing congressional oversight."
In June 2023, after the reporting, the Coast Guard committed to changing its culture. In November 2023 its own report found that drastic improvement was needed. In a 2022 survey it cited, about 18 percent of the women serving in the Coast Guard who responded, and 4 percent of the men, said they had experienced sexual harassment.
Where it stands
The Coast Guard set out 33 reform actions in November 2023 and later added 16.
As of August 2026, the Coast Guard reported completing 36 of the 49 actions.
That leaves 13, and for those GAO found no plan: "We found that the Coast Guard had not updated timelines or outlined clear next steps for implementing the incomplete reform actions."
Some things have moved since GAO's January 2026 recommendations. In June the Coast Guard built a tool to collect feedback from its own personnel, and in August it produced an updated implementation plan.
Whether any of it works
Nobody can yet say, and that is the report's sharpest point. "The Coast Guard has not yet developed a performance plan to assess its progress over time". GAO first raised the absence of one in testimony in March 2024. A tool to establish baseline measures is being developed, but as of June 2026 it had no goals or measures attached.
Completing an action and fixing the problem it was meant to fix are different claims. With no measures, the 36 completed actions show that work was done, not that anything changed.
The reports Congress is owed
Federal law, 14 U.S.C. § 5112, requires the Coast Guard to report to Congress every year on sexual assault and harassment. The 2022 report was incomplete and almost a year late. "However, the Coast Guard issued its 2023, 2024, and 2025 reports late and still did not include all required information." Coast Guard officials told GAO the 2025 report is complete, and GAO found that required elements are still missing.
What this report does not show
- No current numbers. It contains no counts of assaults or harassment reports from any year after the 2022 survey.
- Which 13 actions are open. They are not listed, and neither are dates for finishing them.
- No new recommendations. It tracks earlier ones and does not say how many are still open or whether the Coast Guard agreed with them.
- A verdict on the reforms. GAO's finding is that effectiveness cannot yet be measured, not that the reforms have failed.
A companion report the same day, GAO-26-109300, looks at a different pressure on the same force: 76 percent of Coast Guard members rely on private housing, 40 percent move each year, and about 41 percent of units sit in remote or vacation-rental areas. Nine GAO recommendations on housing were open as of July.