The Urban and Community Impact Analysis Program, if Retained, Will Need Major Improvements

The Urban and Community Impact Analysis (UCIA) program was established in 1978 by an Executive order and the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) implementing Circular A-116. The purposes of the program are to: (1) identify the likely effects of proposed initiatives on cities, counties, and other communities; and (2) inform decisionmakers of proposed agency actions that may run counter to the goals of the President's urban policy. Circular A-116 requires executive agencies to submit UCIA's on all major legislative, budgetary, and regulatory initiatives. GAO surveyed the UCIA program to determine how well the program had achieved its intended results and to identify and recommend any needed improvements.

UCIA program results have fallen far short of expectations, more because of managerial and administrative deficiencies than because of technical, programmatic problems. Lack of OMB and White House commitment to the program has resulted in inadequate monitoring of executive agency compliance. Further, a lack of timeliness and credibility in the executive agencies and on the budget side of OMB has hampered the program's influence in the decisionmaking process. Public interest groups and State and local governments are critical because UCIA's on budgetary and legislative initiatives are considered internal OMB staff documents, not for release to the public. Most officials and staff persons questioned in OMB and other agencies had no objections to public disclosure of analyses after OMB and White House decisions are made on agency proposals. A disclosure of this type could: (1) promote healthy debate on programs proposed to Congress; (2) enhance the accuracy, objectivity and quality of analyses; and (3) improve the program's credibility. Expanding the UCIA process to include program reauthorizations, base programs, OMB changes in agency budget initiatives, and participation by independent regulatory agencies could make the process more useful. GAO believes that adding program reauthorizations and OMB changes in agency budget initiatives could be achieved in the least time and with the least administrative effort; actions on base programs and independent regulatory agencies represent longer range actions.

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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