Compliance was still incomplete
The Labor inspector general assessed 13 Geospatial Data Act requirements: five were met, seven were partially met and one showed no progress. Twelve statuses were unchanged from the prior review; one improved.
That means 38.5% were fully met and 61.5% were not. The department’s geospatial strategy had not been updated since fiscal 2022, even as leadership changed among three chief data officers from 2024 through 2026.
| Status | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Met | 5 | 38.5% |
| Partially met | 7 | 53.8% |
| No progress | 1 | 7.7% |
| Total | 13 | 100% |
The inventory omitted operational imagery
The audit found drone imagery used by OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration was absent from the department’s geospatial inventory. It also identified inaccurate metadata.
An inventory omission does not mean the imagery was lost or publicly exposed. It means the department could not demonstrate the complete catalog and governance structure the federal law requires.
Old recommendations were replaced with new ones
The inspector general closed or reworded three prior recommendations and issued four new ones. The department agreed, with target dates in early 2027 for several management actions and a separate funding decision directed to the secretary.
Closing an older recommendation in order to restate it is not the same as correcting the underlying condition. Progress should be judged against the new deliverables, updated inventory and strategy—not the count of administratively closed items.
Method and limits
This newsroom calculated shares from the 13-requirement status table and compared the current and prior status descriptions. Findings and inventory judgments are the inspector general’s.
The report evaluates compliance management, not the accuracy of every OSHA or MSHA inspection. Drone imagery is one omitted data type, not evidence that every geospatial dataset was missing.