Transportation Infrastructure

The Department of Transportation can select and fund state transportation projects under several discretionary highway programs. In a November 1997 report, GAO found that the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Office of the Administrator chose a declining proportion of projects that FHWA staff considered promising. In a May 1998 report, GAO found that the Office awarded a disproportionate number of projects and funds to projects located in Democratic congressional districts in the Public Lands Highways Program. As a result of these reports, the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century mandated several changes to the way in which Transportation awards discretionary grants. This report provides information on how FHWA has implemented the act's requirements and compares the results of the selection process for fiscal years 1998 and 1999.

GAO noted that: (1) FHwA has only partially implemented the requirements in TEA-21; (2) FHwA developed and published criteria for selecting projects in 1998 and reported its selections to the House and Senate authorizing committees in 1999; (3) however, with the exception of the Discretionary Bridge Program, FHwA staff do not evaluate or suggest projects on the basis of a comparative analysis of the projects' transportation benefits; (4) GAO's analysis of the process indicates that FHwA staff primarily suggested projects based on their location to ensure an equitable and geographic distribution of funds to the states; (5) FHwA officials asserted that it would not be feasible to compare the benefits of the projects when making selections, especially in the Public Lands Highways and Ferry Boats and Facilities programs, because each project has unique and, therefore, incomparable characteristics; (6) however, this assertion is inconsistent with other FHwA programs that compare and assess the transportation benefits of a wide array of discretionary projects; (7) during the funding cycle for FY 1998 through FY 1999, 98 percent of the projects that the Office of the Administrator selected were projects that the staff had suggested for funding; (8) this contrasts with the selection results in FY 1995 through FY 1997, when the Office of the Administrator selected as little as 59 percent of projects that staff considered promising and most promising; (9) GAO's analysis of the funding results by congressional district for the funding cycle in fiscal years 1998-1999 found that FHwA awarded a slightly disproportionate amount of Public Lands Highways Program funds to projects located in districts with Republican representation; (10) according to FHwA officials, the anomaly in the Public Lands Highways Program is primarily due to statutory direction that the Secretary give preference to projects in states with at least 3 percent of the nation's public lands, that is, western states that have predominately Republican congressional districts; and (11) this result is different from GAO's analysis of that program for FY 1995 through FY 1997, when FHwA awarded a significantly disproportionate amount of funds to projects in districts with Democratic representation.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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