Commerce urged to formalize oversight of concrete masonry checkoff program

The Government Accountability Office reported that the Concrete Masonry Checkoff (CMC) Board collected $27.2 million in assessments and spent $15.0 million from 2023 through 2025, primarily on 17 national and 69 regional projects. The board, which administers the federally authorized program, uses 27 performance metrics with five-year goals to track progress.

As of year-end 2025, the board said it met or exceeded five of its goals and achieved at least 20 percent of the target for ten additional goals. It plans to issue its required independent evaluation of program effectiveness in the first quarter of 2027.

The Department of Commerce is statutorily required to oversee the CMC Board's compliance through reviews, approvals, and monitoring of projects, contracts, budgets, and performance metrics. However, Commerce has not developed written procedures for approving the board's annual program objectives and performance metrics, a gap GAO says could lead to inconsistent approvals and loss of organizational knowledge.

GAO's recommendation - identified in report GAO-27-108692 - asks the Secretary of Commerce to develop such written policies and procedures. The recommendation remains open, and Commerce has not submitted comments.

The oversight enhancement would affect the roughly 260 concrete masonry producers that fund the program through mandatory assessments, potentially strengthening the industry's research, education, and promotion activities.