Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should direct the Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety to conduct a risk assessment of avionics systems cybersecurity to identify the relative priority of avionics cybersecurity risks for its oversight program compared to other safety concerns and develop a plan to address those risks. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should direct the Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, based on the assessment of avionics cybersecurity risks, to identify staffing and training needs for agency inspectors specific to avionics cybersecurity, and develop and implement appropriate training to address identified needs. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should direct the Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, based on the assessment of avionics cybersecurity risks, to develop and implement guidance for avionics cybersecurity testing of new airplane designs that includes independent testing. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should direct the Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, based on the assessment of avionics cybersecurity risks, to review and consider revising its policies and procedures for monitoring the effectiveness of avionics cybersecurity controls in the deployed fleet to include developing procedures for safely conducting independent testing. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should direct the Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety to develop a mechanism to ensure that avionics cybersecurity issues are appropriately tracked and resolved when coordinating among internal stakeholders. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should direct the Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, based on the assessment of avionics cybersecurity risks, to review and consider the extent to which oversight resources should be committed to avionics cybersecurity. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should include the known limitations and intended uses of its TAM performance data in its public reports such as its annual NTD summary and other reports for decision-makers. This action should include clarifying the context of state of good repair data in TAM reports in relation to similar data in DOT's Condition and Performance Report and how they differ. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should develop a plan for how FTA intends to analyze, implement, and communicate any identified TAM program improvements moving forward. The plan should describe how FTA intends to address:

• relying on a single performance measure per asset category,

• potential limited use of investment scenarios by transit agencies in making asset decisions, and

• shorter-term planning horizons than those used by other planning counterparts. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of FDA should establish a process for the agency to communicate directly with all U.S.-based commercial airlines, including regional airlines, to encourage them to request construction inspections to ensure compliance with the agency's standards for the sanitary construction of aircraft galleys and lavatories. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Food and Drug Administration
Status: Open

Comments: HHS concurs with GAO's recommendation. FDA agrees that enhancing communication with U.S.-based commercial airlines, including major national and regional commuter airlines, to encourage them to request construction inspections can have a positive impact on efforts to gain compliance with the Agency's standards for aircraft galley and lavatory sanitation and potable water system installation. FDA has a long history of working collaboratively with interstate travel conveyance stakeholders to provide public health oversight to the industry. As part of this collaboration, FDA and the airline industry connect through a variety of mechanisms to provide access to diverse industry partners. To effectively engage all relevant stakeholders, FDA will consider ways to enhance current mechanisms and coordinate with airlines on better communication. FDA will review its existing outreach channels to allow airline stakeholders to actively and directly engage with the Agency on construction inspections. FDA will review its Interstate Travel Program website to determine if updates can be made to emphasize airline construction and reconstruction information. FDA maintains open dialog with airline organizations, including the Airlines for America (A4A), the Regional Airline Association (RAA), and the International Flight Services Association (IFSA). Members of A4A are comprised of major national airlines, whereas those of RAA are comprised of regional commuter airlines and those in IFSA include airlines and airline food suppliers. These industry associations are valuable partners in developing solutions to problems that concern the airlines and airline construction. FDA will continue to engage with these organizations in written correspondence and at relevant national industry meetings (such as the Environmental Protection Agency biennial meeting on aircraft drinking water safety) and will include the topic of construction inspections. FDA will also continue to use these existing mechanisms to develop a better communication process with the airline industry on its efforts to improve industry practice and government oversight.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of CBP should ensure that the Biometric Entry-Exit Program's privacy notices contain complete and current information, including all of the locations where facial recognition is used and how travelers can request to opt out as appropriate. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Customs and Border Protection
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of CBP should ensure that the Biometric Entry-Exit Program's privacy signage is consistently available at all locations where CBP is using facial recognition. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Customs and Border Protection
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of CBP should direct the Biometric Entry-Exit Program to develop and implement a plan to conduct privacy audits of its commercial partners', contractors', and vendors' use of personally identifiable information. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Customs and Border Protection
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of CBP should develop and implement a plan to ensure that the biometric air exit capability meets its established photo capture requirement. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Customs and Border Protection
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of CBP should develop a process by which Biometric Entry-Exit program officials are alerted when the performance of air exit facial recognition falls below established thresholds. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Customs and Border Protection
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should assign authority to an office or other entity to oversee use of the Compliance Program across program offices. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should collect and analyze data to monitor use of the Compliance Program across all program offices. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should conduct an evaluation of the Compliance Program to assess the effectiveness of the program in meeting its goals. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology should take steps, such as updating guidance or other written communication, to ensure that the topical-research working groups (1) define and monitor progress toward achieving long-term outcomes, and (2) regularly update and monitor their charters and other written agreements to reflect these outcomes, in line with leading practices. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology should take additional steps, such as providing more specific guidance or instructions to the modal administrations on the information that should be updated or required, to ensure that the information in the Research Hub is complete and accurate. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should establish quantifiable targets for the Surface Transportation Security Inspectors Program's activity-level performance measures. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The U.S. commissioners of the International Joint Commission should work with the Canadian commissioners to update the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board communications plan and ensure that the plan incorporates best practices for public relations efforts, in particular defining target audiences and developing mechanisms to monitor and inform adjustments to strategies, and generally accepted principles for communicating risk-related information. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: International Joint Commission--United States and Canada
Status: Open

Comments: The International Joint Commission (IJC) agreed with our recommendation. IJC stated that it intends to develop an updated communications plan that incorporates best practices for public relations efforts by December 31, 2020. We will continue to monitor IJC's actions in response to this recommendation.

Recommendation: The U.S. commissioners of the International Joint Commission should work with the Canadian commissioners to develop and enter into written agreements with entities that the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee identifies as having information or resources that the committee needs to effectively monitor and evaluate the impacts of Plan 2014. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: International Joint Commission--United States and Canada
Status: Open

Comments: The International Joint Commission (IJC) agreed with our recommendation. IJC is compiling a list of entities with which it shares information to explore formal data and information sharing arrangements with them. We will continue to monitor IJC's actions in response to this recommendation.

Recommendation: The U.S. commissioners of the International Joint Commission should work with the Canadian commissioners to ensure that IJC fully incorporates the key elements and essential characteristics of the adaptive management process into a comprehensive adaptive management strategic plan for Plan 2014. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: International Joint Commission--United States and Canada
Status: Open

Comments: The International Joint Commission (IJC) agreed with our recommendation. IJC plans to produce a comprehensive adaptive management strategic plan that fully incorporates the key elements and essential characteristics of the adaptive management process by December 31, 2020. We will continue to monitor IJC's actions in response to this recommendation.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should take steps to provide information to Congress and sponsors to better clarify how FTA applies the methods and factors it considers when performing its review of sponsors' projects. Clarification could include how FTA uses documents, such as project roadmaps, to help sponsors advance through the development process; estimated time frames for reviewing submissions and responding to sponsors' requests; and how FTA considers geographic diversity of projects in its decision-making. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should take steps to review all agency guidance pertaining to the Capital Investment Grants program's development process and identify aspects that may be outdated or confusing for sponsors, and communicate to Congress and sponsors the steps needed to update FTA's guidance or otherwise provide sponsors with more current information on the Capital Investment Grants program. As part of FTA's efforts, FTA could obtain feedback from sponsors and the industry on these issues as appropriate. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should take steps to ensure its staff communicates information, such as the reason why a project is not advancing, to sponsors in a timely manner and in writing upon the sponsor's request. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System should complete a government-wide assessment of the economic, environmental, and safety risks posed by gaps in maritime infrastructure in the U.S. Arctic to inform investment priorities and decisions. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Committee on the Marine Transportation System
Status: Open

Comments: CMTS partially concurred with our recommendation but also noted several areas of disagreement with our conclusions, which we addressed directly in our report. For example, we note in our report that CMTS itself has previously noted the importance of evaluating risks on a government-wide basis, and that it previously proposed a model for determining risk that considered the likelihood of adverse events actually occurring, vulnerability to damage, and potential consequences. Given its previous work in the U.S. Arctic and its coordinating role with its member agencies, CMTS is well suited to conduct a government-wide assessment of the risks posed by gaps in maritime infrastructure in the U.S. Arctic. As such, we stand by our recommendation and will continue to report on steps taken by CMTS to address it.

Recommendation: The appropriate entities within the Executive Office of the President, including the Office of Science and Technology Policy should develop and publish a strategy for addressing U.S. Arctic maritime infrastructure that identifies goals and objectives, performance measures to monitor agencies' progress over time, and the appropriate responses to address risks. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Science and Technology Policy
Status: Open

Comments: OSTP neither agreed nor disagreed with the report's recommendations. OSTP acknowledged the Arctic is of critical national importance and noted interagency coordination can be implemented through the entities of the National Science and Technology Council, which is located within OSTP. As we note in our report, without a strategy for addressing U.S. Arctic maritime infrastructure that identifies goals and objectives, performance measures to monitor agencies' progress over time, and the appropriate responses to address risks, agencies lack assurance that their actions are effectively targeting priority areas and decision makers cannot gauge the extent of progress in addressing maritime infrastructure gaps. As such, we stand by our recommendation and will continue to evaluate OSTP's efforts to fully address it.

Recommendation: The appropriate entities within the Executive Office of the President, including the Office of Science and Technology Policy should designate the interagency group responsible for leading and coordinating federal efforts to address maritime infrastructure in the U.S. Arctic that includes all relevant stakeholders. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Science and Technology Policy
Status: Open

Comments: OSTP neither agreed nor disagreed with the report's recommendations. OSTP acknowledged the Arctic is of critical national importance and noted interagency coordination can be implemented through the entities of the National Science and Technology Council, which is located within OSTP. OSTP noted the need for, and role of additional federal coordination, such as the Arctic Executive Steering Committee, is under consideration by OSTP. We continue to believe that the appropriate entities within the Executive Office of the President, including OSTP, should designate the interagency group responsible for leading and coordinating federal efforts to address maritime infrastructure in the U.S. Arctic that includes all relevant stakeholders. As we note in our report, without an interagency collaboration mechanism designated to lead these efforts, it is unclear who has responsibility for whole-of-government efforts to address U.S. Arctic maritime infrastructure. We will continue to monitor OSTP's efforts to fully address our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of NHTSA should document an evaluation plan for the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network pedestrian pilot program that includes criteria for determining whether and how to scale the pilot program to ensure that the piloted data-collection and analysis procedures will address NHTSA's data needs related to pedestrian injuries and vehicle characteristics. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, NHTSA reported that it plans to develop an evaluation plan for the CIREN pedestrian pilot program by April 30, 2021 to inform decisions about further investigative pedestrian crash studies. According to NHTSA this plan will address research needs categorized as either crash worthiness, crash avoidance, or behavioral in nature, and will include criteria for investigative study elements and the scope or scalability of those studies. NHTSA also reported that in developing the evaluation plan it will consider input from stakeholders, including the first-hand experience from the CIREN pilot study sites. GAO will continue to monitor NHTSA's progress in addressing this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of NHTSA should document the overall process for making changes to NCAP, including established criteria and milestones for decisions, and share this process with external stakeholders. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In July 2020, NHTSA reported that it is developing proposed updates to NCAP, which it plans to publish in a notice in the Federal Register by the end of 2020. According to NHTSA this notice will clarify the process by which NHTSA updates NCAP, and after receiving and responding to comments, NHTSA plans to update its website to provide information to stakeholders on how the agency considers and finalizes changes to NCAP. GAO will continue to monitor NHTSA's actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of NHTSA should decide whether to include pedestrian safety tests in NCAP and NHTSA should communicate this decision and rationale to relevant stakeholders and the public. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In July 2020, NHTSA reported that it is developing its proposal on planned changes to NCAP, which is expected to include pedestrian safety tests, and is working to publish a notice to the Federal Register by the end of 2020. According to NHTSA, this process will include receiving public comment on the proposal, which the agency will consider in deciding and communicating NHTSA's next stages. As stated in GAO's report, in the absence of a decision on whether to include pedestrian safety testing in NCAP, and the rationale for that decision, stakeholders lack clarity on whether NHTSA is using all of the policy tools at its disposal to address emerging safety risks and to achieve its strategic objectives. GAO will continue to monitor NHTSA's efforts to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should update the BASE cybersecurity template to ensure it reflects cybersecurity key practices, including the Detect and Recover functions outlined in the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: TSA concurred with this recommendation and said it would take steps to implement it by updating the BASE Cybersecurity Security Action Item section to ensure it reflects the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Detect and Recover functions. When we confirm what actions TSA has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should conduct and document a risk assessment that considers inherent and residual fraud and abuse risks that may enable criminal, national security, or safety risks. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should determine impact, likelihood, and risk tolerance as part of a risk assessment. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should develop a strategy that outlines specific actions to address analyzed risks, including periodic assessments to evaluate continuing effectiveness of the risk response. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should collect and record information on individual registrants, initially including name, address, date of birth, and driver's license or pilot's license, or both, with subsequent PII elements informed by the risk assessment, once completed. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should collect and record information on legal entities not traded publicly—on each individual and entity that owns more than 25 percent of the aircraft; for individuals: name, date of birth, physical address, and driver's license or pilot's license, or both; and for entities: name, physical address, state of residence, and taxpayer identification number. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should verify aircraft registration applicants' and dealers' eligibility and information. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should increase aircraft registration and dealer fees to ensure the fees are sufficient to cover the costs of FAA efforts to collect and verify applicant information while keeping pace with inflation. (Recommendation 7)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should ensure, as part of aircraft registry IT modernization, that information currently collected in ancillary files or in PDF format on (1) owners and related individuals and entities with potentially significant responsibilities for aircraft ownership (e.g., beneficial owners, trustors, trustees, beneficiaries, stockholders, directors, and managers) and (2) declarations of international operations is recorded in an electronic format that facilitates data analytics by FAA and its stakeholders. (Recommendation 8)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should link information on owners and related individuals and entities with significant responsibilities for aircraft ownership through a common identifier. (Recommendation 9)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should, as part of IT modernization, develop an approach to check OFAC sanctions data on owners and related individuals and entities with potentially significant responsibilities for aircraft ownership for coordination with OFAC and to flag sanctioned individuals and entities across aircraft registration and dealer systems. (Recommendation 10)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should use data collected as part of IT modernization as well as current data sources to identify and analyze patterns of activity indicative of fraud or abuse, based on information from declarations of international operations, postal addresses, sanctions listings, and other sources, and information on dealers, noncitizen corporations, and individuals and entities with significant responsibilities for aircraft ownership. (Recommendation 11)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should develop and implement risk-based mitigation actions to address potential fraud and abuse identified through data analyses. (Recommendation 12)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should develop mechanisms, including regulations if necessary, for dealer suspension and revocation. (Recommendation 13)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA, in coordination with relevant law-enforcement agencies, should enhance coordination within the Aircraft Registry Task Force through collaborative mechanisms such as written agreements and use of liaison positions. (Recommendation 14)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA, in coordination with relevant law-enforcement agencies, should develop a mechanism to provide declarations of international operations for law-enforcement purposes. (Recommendation 15)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Chairman of the Board should require the Safety Recommendation and Communication team to fully document its evaluations when assessing items to propose for Most Wanted List consideration (Recommendation 1).

Agency: National Transportation Safety Board
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Chairman of the Board should take steps to publicly and fully communicate the selection rationale, such as including why NTSB believes an issue is "ripe for action" to its documentation on its website (Recommendation 2).

Agency: National Transportation Safety Board
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should direct T&D and Security Operations to monitor for instances of TSO non-compliance by individual commercial airports across fiscal years that could potentially warrant corrective action at the headquarters level. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In January 2020, TSA's formal comment letter in response to our draft report stated that T&D will begin recording instances of noncompliance and work with Security Operations to monitor trends at individual airports and with specific courses. TSA also reported that T&D had developed a repository in its iShare database for this information at the end of 2019 and the agency is currently testing various options for reporting and pulling data. Once options are chosen and incorporated into its standard operating procedures, TSA reports that T&D will begin sharing the reports with Security Operations on a monthly basis. In July 2020, TSA officials told us that T&D had begun sharing training compliance reports from their database with Security Operations and discussing the results with them on a monthly basis. This database allows T&D to recognize trends at individual airports and specific courses throughout the fiscal year. Going forward, this process will enable T&D to identify noncompliance trends across fiscal years. We will continue to montior these efforts to verify that the T&D is montioring trends across fiscal years and work with TSA towards closure of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Executive Assistant Administrator / Director of FAMS should identify and utilize a suitable system that provides information about air marshals' medical qualification status. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration: Office of Law Enforcement - Federal Air Marshal Service
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with this recommendation and in January 2020, DHS officials stated that FAMS is evaluating case management software to track this information and plans to pursue funding for this effort in fiscal year 2021.This action, if fully implemented, should address the intent of the recommendation. When we confirm what actions DHS has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Executive Assistant Administrator / Director of FAMS should develop and implement a plan to assess the health and fitness of the FAMS workforce as a whole, including trends over time. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration: Office of Law Enforcement - Federal Air Marshal Service
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with this recommendation and in January 2020, DHS officials stated that FAMS had established a team to develop a plan for assessing workforce health and wellness issues. Adopting and implementing a plan that assesses the health and fitness of the FAMS workforce as a whole, should address the intent of the recommendation. When we confirm what actions DHS has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Executive Assistant Administrator / Director of FAMS should identify and implement a means to monitor the extent to which air marshals' actual shifts and rest hours are consistent with scheduling guidelines. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration: Office of Law Enforcement - Federal Air Marshal Service
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with this recommendation and in January 2020, DHS officials stated that FAMS will begin tracking air marshals' actual hours and examine the extent to which air marshals' actual and scheduled hours vary. This information could be helpful, for example, in assessing air marshals' schedule predictability. However, to address the intent of this recommendation, FAMS would need to monitor the extent that air marshals' actual work and rest hours are consistent with FAMS's scheduling guidelines. When we confirm what actions DHS has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Executive Assistant Administrator / Director of FAMS should take steps to reaffirm and strengthen efforts to prevent discrimination by, for example, updating and following through on its 2012 action plan and renewing leadership commitment to the plan's goals. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration: Office of Law Enforcement - Federal Air Marshal Service
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with this recommendation and in January 2020, DHS officials stated that FAMS plans to review the goals of its 2012 action plan and develop steps to strengthen efforts to prevent discrimination. These actions, if fully implemented, should address the intent of the recommendation. When we confirm what actions DHS has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should develop performance goals for its Insider Threat Program that assess progress achieving the strategic objectives in the insider threat strategic plan. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In May 2020, TSA published its strategic framework, the TSA Insider Threat Roadmap, for mitigating insider threats in the transportation sector. The Roadmap contains three overarching strategic priorities and specific objectives for each of these priorities to refine and continue to improve its efforts to detect, deter, and mitigate insider threats. TSA described that its next steps will be to develop implementation plans for each of these priorities and objectives, including detailed plans of actions with timelines and performance measures to assess its progress achieving the Roadmap's priorities and objectives. We will continue to monitor TSA's efforts to implement our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should direct the Aviation Workforce Steering Committee, as part of its ongoing efforts, to take steps to use existing FAA data and coordinate with other federal agencies to identify and gather the information it needs to measure progress and target resources toward its goal of promoting a robust, qualified, and diverse aviation maintenance workforce. For example, FAA could task a committee working group with developing and implementing ways to improve data sharing among federal agencies to inform decision-making on how to strengthen career pathways and better understand the supply and demand of certificated workers. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: DOT agreed with this recommendation. Specifically, the agency agreed that using existing data could potentially contribute to its efforts to develop the aviation maintenance workforce. DOT said it will ask the Aviation Workforce Steering Committee to consider using existing FAA data and to coordinate with other federal agencies regarding other potential data sources to support the FAA's aviation maintenance workforce goals. We will consider closing this recommendation when these and other efforts to address this recommendation are complete.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should develop a plan for analyzing currently-collected UAS test site data to determine how they could be used to advance UAS integration, and whether the collection of any additional test site data, within the agency's authority to request, could be useful for informing integration. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: DOT partially concurred with this recommendation. In DOT's official response dated March 2020, DOT officials indicated that FAA does not intend to collect any additional type of test site data, unless FAA funds new research or demonstrations. Further, officials noted that FAA has gathered data since the UAS test site program became operational in 2014, through several vehicles including details of flight tests entered into the Mission Logging System (MLS). Officials noted that FAA has and will continue to use data collected from the test sites to, among other things, better understand the challenges facing future UAS integration. We continue to believe that FAA implementing this recommendation would enable the agency to better leverage test site research and data to inform its decisions related to UAS integration. When we confirm what actions FAA has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FTA should develop a communication plan that will effectively share information with state transportation agencies and rural and tribal transit providers on coordination opportunities and leading coordination practices in an accessible and informative way. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, FTA partially concurred with this recommendation. FTA noted that they will direct the National Rural Transit Assistance Program (NRTAP) to create a centralized, searchable library database cataloging all available resources that cover transportation coordination. This library database will include resources developed by FTA, other Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility (CCAM) members, and their technical assistance centers and initiatives, such as the Rural Opportunities to Use Transportation for Economic Success (ROUTES). FTA will complete these actions by August 31, 2021. We will review the database and other resources when they become available.

Recommendation: The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration should develop and implement a process to ensure that information on UAS-related costs is complete and reliable as capabilities and related regulations evolve. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, as part of UAS integration-planning efforts, should use available guidance on effective fee design to incorporate steps that will inform future fee-design considerations. For example, FAA may choose to incorporate these additional steps into its annual UAS implementation plan so that—as existing activities are adapted for UAS users or new regulations, services, or systems are introduced—costs and fee design options are considered. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration: Office of the Administrator
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should update TSA guidance for developing and approving screening technology explosives detection standards to reflect designated procedures, the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, and changes in the agency's organizational structure. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should require and ensure that TSA officials document key decisions, including testing and analysis decisions, used to support the development and consideration of new screening technology explosives detection standards. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should require and ensure that TSA officials document their assessments of risk and the rationale—including the assumptions, methodology, and uncertainty considered—behind decisions to deploy screening technologies. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should develop a process to ensure that screening technologies continue to meet detection requirements after deployment to commercial airports. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should implement the process it develops to ensure that screening technologies continue to meet detection requirements after deployment to commercial airports. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should clarify roles and responsibilities for all offices involved in the coordination of surface transportation exercises, including when these offices are to coordinate, as part of the planned revision of the Surface Division's Internal Operating Procedure for I-STEP. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: TSA concurred with the recommendation and will develop a standard operating procedure to clarify the roles and responsibilities for all offices involved in the coordination of surface transportation exercises, including when these offices are to coordinate, in conjunction with the planned revision of I-STEP's Surface Division Internal Operating Procedure. As part of this, TSA initiated a Surface Exercise Steering Group in January 2020 to clarify surface roles and responsibilities and to discuss a new approach for coordination of surface exercises. TSA estimates completing these actions by September 30, 2020.

Recommendation: The Administrator of TSA should document which rule review process TSA I&A uses (exigent or standard) for each new rule or rule change; (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with this recommendation and agreed to document which rule review process TSA I&A uses (exigent or standard) for each new rule or rule change. In March 2020, TSA updated its SOP to require that the selected rule review process be documented for each new rule and rule change. TSA's policy change is a positive first step, but to fully address this recommendation, TSA will need to demonstrate that the selected rule review process is now being documented.

Recommendation: The Administrator of TSA should explore additional data sources measuring the effectiveness of Silent Partner and Quiet Skies rules. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with this recommendation and, in May 2020, DHS officials stated that they are reviewing data sources and assessing potential ways to assess the effectiveness of Quiet Skies and Silent Partner screening rules. DHS officials stated that they plan to fully address this recommendation by December 2020.

Recommendation: We recommend that the Secretary of the Navy ensure that the Commander, Naval Surface Forces, in coordination with Surface Warfare Officers School Command, develop a method to regularly collect feedback from SWOs across the fleet, such as in a survey, regarding the quality of their classroom, simulator, and at-sea training on Division Officer performance; and evaluates trends in the feedback received for the purpose of improving SWO training. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy
Status: Open

Comments: The Navy concurred with our recommendation. In March 2020, the Navy provided an estimated implementation date of March 2023, noting that it was considering a fleet-wide survey, timed for a later date when more Surface Warfare Officers have completed new training courses and implemented their training. In addition, the Navy listed other means it employs to collect feedback, such as student surveys at the end of training courses, leadership visits and conferences, and Commanding Officer updates. Our emphasis on collection of fleet-wide feedback from all Surface Warfare Officers and trend analysis remains critical to help the Navy understand the value of its training programs at various career stages and in the diverse operating environments across the fleet.

Recommendation: We recommend that the Secretary of the Navy ensure that the Commander, Naval Surface Forces, routinely conduct regular Officer of the Deck competency assessments using samples of sufficient size and using selection methods to gauge the level of fleet-wide ship-driving proficiency trends following the implementation of the planned ship-driving training programs. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy
Status: Open

Comments: The Navy concurred with our recommendation. In March 2020, the Navy provided an estimated implementation date of March 2023, noting that it was conducting the planned fleet-wide Officer of the Deck competency checks in 2020, and that it intends to use a system of ten career milestone assessments for future performance measurement. The Navy stated that it may or may not hold subsequent rounds of the Officer of the Deck competency assessments depending on performance indicated in other career milestone assessments. In our report we identified the importance of continuing the current Officer of the Deck competency assessments through at least 2024 because that is when new officers that complete the full set of new initial ship-driving training courses will be eligible for assessment. The Navy used the Officer of the Deck competency assessments in 2018 to establish a performance baseline, and we believe that the Navy should apply the same standard to measure performance changes for Surface Warfare Officers that complete new training courses moving forward.

Recommendation: We recommend that the Secretary of the Navy ensure that the Commander, Naval Surface Forces, in coordination with Surface Warfare Officers School Command, provide Commanding Officers with standard criteria to inform their evaluation of candidates for their Officer of the Deck qualification and incorporates these criteria into surface fleet guidance. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy
Status: Open

Comments: The Navy concurred with our recommendation. In March 2020, the Navy provided an estimated implementation date of March 2023. However, in its official comments on the report and in subsequent correspondence, the Navy indicated that its existing policies already meet the intent of the recommendation. Specifically, the Navy stated that its Officer of the Deck Underway Personnel Qualification Standards provide standard evaluation criteria for Officer of the Deck qualification. In our report, we noted that while the Personnel Qualification Standards provide a common list of required experiences, they do not provide a common understanding of proficiency in completing these experiences. Instead, proficiency determination is left to the discretion of the ship's Commanding Officer, which has led to wide variation in ship-driving proficiency across the fleet. Therefore, we continue to believe that the Navy should provide Commanding Officers with standard criteria to inform their evaluation of candidates for their Officer of the Deck qualification and incorporate these criteria into surface fleet guidance.

Recommendation: We recommend that the Secretary of the Navy ensure that the Commander, Naval Surface Forces, in coordination with Surface Warfare Officers School Command, develop a plan to analyze and use Mariner Skills Logbook information to inform decision-making. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy
Status: Open

Comments: The Navy concurred with our recommendation. In March 2020, the Navy provided an estimated implementation date of March 2023. In official comments on the report and in subsequent correspondence the Navy stated that its Surface Warfare Career Manual establishes guidance for the implementation and use of the Mariner Skills Logbook, and that the logbook will contribute information to allow proficiency trend analysis over time. However, while the Surface Warfare Career Manual identifies the offices responsible for logbook activities, it does not include a specific plan for the use of logbook data to analyze proficiency trends over time or to benefit individual officers. Our emphasis that the Navy develop a plan to analyze and use Surface Warfare Mariner Skills Logbook data to aid decision-making remains valid, and when implemented should assist the Navy in determining the relationship between SWO experience and ship-driving proficiency.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of FTA to identify and develop controls, such as methods to more easily identify transit expenses within applications submitted by larger entities, such as a city, county, or state government, to address the risk of duplicate funding. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Administrator of FEMA to identify and develop controls, such as methods to more easily identify transit expenses within applications submitted by larger entities such as a city, county, or state government, to address the risk of duplicate funding. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The NHTSA Administrator should provide direction and clarification to states to ensure compliance with requirements to assess and report progress made in achieving fatality targets. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of January 2020, NHTSA told GAO that they had emailed all State Highway Safety Offices in November 2019 to clarify the requirements for states to assess their progress made in achieving fatality targets. NHTSA also told GAO that they plan to conduct a national webinar for State Highway Safety Offices to provide direction on performance management requirements by July 2020. GAO will continue to monitor NHTSA's implementation of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The NHTSA Administrator should develop and implement a mechanism that communicates to Congress and other stakeholders whether states achieve their fatality and serious injury targets. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In April 2020, GAO confirmed that NHTSA published each state's required safety targets from calendar year 2020 on it website. NHTSA told GAO that it plans to provide performance data on state's achievement of their 2020 targets on its website when data becomes available in the fall of 2021, and complete implementation of this recommendation in 2022. GAO will continue to monitor NHTSA's implementation of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FHWA should require FHWA division offices to document the rationale for classifying projects as emergency repairs, such as a description of why an emergency repair is necessary and which alternative strategies or repairs were considered, and to more clearly define the circumstances under which projects are classified as emergency repairs, including what constitutes restoration of essential traffic. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: DOT concurred with our recommendation and FHWA stated it plans to issue a memo to its division offices to implement it by June 2020. We will continue to monitor the department's efforts to implement our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FHWA should identify a specific timeline for clarifying the policy on the acceptable time frames for accomplishing emergency repair projects undertaken under expedited contracting and environmental requirements, and require FHWA division offices to document the rationale for decisions to extend projects beyond these time frames. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration
Status: Open

Comments: DOT concurred with our recommendation and FHWA stated it plans to issue a decision memo to its division offices to implement it by June 2020. We will continue to monitor the department's efforts to implement our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of the FAA should identify existing or new data and information needed to evaluate oversight activities and develop a mechanism for capturing these data as needed. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: FAA has concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, GAO was working to analyze and evaluate the actions the agency has taken in response.

Recommendation: The Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security should ensure that S&T take steps to more fully incorporate practices for developing milestones within DHS's budget preparation guidance, into the Surface Transportation Explosive Threat Detection program. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In September 2019, GAO reported on a Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) research and development (R&D) program to develop technologies to secure mass transit systems. DHS budget guidance requires S&T to develop results-oriented milestones to track program progress. GAO found that the S&T program's milestones did not clearly link to key activities described in program plans, and thus, were not results oriented. Therefore, we recommended that DHS develop milestones to track its progress developing the technologies that fully adhered to guidance. DHS concurred with our recommendation, and in February 2020, reported that S&T's Finance and Budget Division validated that milestones for the program were compliant with DHS guidance. GAO is currently working with DHS S&T to review documentation related to the validation process in order to close the recommendation..

Recommendation: The Administrator of TSA should develop a mechanism to more routinely and comprehensively share appropriate information on the performance of mass transit security technologies (such as the annual sensor catalog and security technology assessments) with mass transit operators and stakeholders until DHS completes work on a more permanent information sharing resource. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In September 2019, GAO reported on key mechanisms that TSA uses to collaborate and share information on identifying capability gaps and security technologies with stakeholders, including mass transit operators. We found that TSA regularly assesses commercially available technologies, but does not routinely or comprehensively share its results with mass transit operators. Therefore, we recommended that TSA develop a mechanism to routinely and comprehensively share security technology information with mass transit operators. TSA concurred with our recommendation, and in February 2020, reported implementing two of three planned efforts to better share security technology information, including steps to increase distribution of its annual publication on security technologies and to provide regular updates on assessed technologies at routine stakeholder meetings. We will continue to monitor TSA efforts with a third effort in order to close this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Runway Safety Manager should develop a process to identify and remove duplicate excursion records. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of December 2019, FAA concurred with this recommendation. FAA noted that it will include actions to identify and remove duplicate excursion records in its Runway Safety Evolution Plan, which is scheduled to be completed by September 30, 2020. We will review the Runway Safety Evolution Plan when it is available.

Recommendation: The Runway Safety Manager should take steps to analyze data on ramp area incidents in FAA's new surface safety metric. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of December 2019, FAA concurred with this recommendation. FAA noted that it will identify actions to implement this recommendation in its Runway Safety Evolution Plan, which is scheduled to be completed by September 30, 2020. We will review the Runway Safety Evolution Plan when it is available.

Recommendation: The Runway Safety Manager should establish a plan to assess the effectiveness of all of FAA's terminal area-safety efforts, including Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X) and the Runway Safety Program. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: As of December 2019, FAA has concurred with the recommendation, but needs to take additional steps to address the recommendation. FAA noted that it would identify actions to assess the effectiveness of all of its terminal-area safety efforts in a Runway Safety Evolution Plan, which the agency expects to complete by September 30, 2020. We will review the Runway Safety Evolution Plan when it is available.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should require Flight Standards to share the results of its investigations with the Runway Safety Group, in a timely manner. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of December 2019, FAA concurred with this recommendation. FAA noted that it will include an initiative in its 2020 Aviation Safety Business Plan Goal to make information from Flight Standards more accessible to the Runway Safety Group. FAA said the 2020 Aviation Safety Business Plan Goal is scheduled to be completed by September 3, 2020. We will review the Aviation Safety Business Plan Goal when it is available.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FAA should require air traffic control managers to share information on terminal area incidents, such as operational incidents and pilot deviations, with airport operators, in a timely manner. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of December 2019, FAA concurred with this recommendation. FAA noted that it will identify actions to implement this recommendation in its Runway Safety Evolution Plan, which is scheduled to be completed by September 30, 2020. We will review the Runway Safety Evolution Plan when it is available.

Recommendation: The FTA administrator should ensure that FTA's cost estimating information for project sponsors is consistent with all 12 steps found in GAO's Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide and needed for developing reliable cost estimates. [Recommendation 1]

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, FTA had posted GAO's Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide to its website. However, FTA has yet to update its cost estimating information, which does not align with GAO's best practices in five areas: (1) risk and uncertainty analysis; (2) sensitivity analysis; (3) identifying ground rules and assumptions; (4) obtaining the data; and (5) presenting cost estimates to management. GAO continues to believe that because FTA's cost estimating information does not align with all 12 steps found in GAO's Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide, FTA lacks reasonable assurance that sponsors have developed and communicated high-quality cost estimates. We will continue to monitor FTA's actions.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should provide a central, easily accessible source with all of FTA's cost estimating information to help project sponsors improve the reliability of their cost estimates. [Recommendation 2]

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, FTA had developed a webpage with some cost estimating information for project sponsors. However, the website did not include key information for project sponsors which FTA had previously provided to GAO for its analysis of cost estimating information. We continue to believe that providing a centralized location to share existing FTA documentation with sponsors, and ensuring that the documentation incorporates best practices from GAO's Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide, such as sensitivity analyses, could improve the reliability of sponsors' cost estimates and could reduce the risk of cost overruns for Capital Investment Grant (CIG) New Starts applicants and grantees. We will continue to monitor FTA's actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: During the next reauthorization for surface transportation programs, Congress should consider including language in the reauthorization bill that would require DOT to develop and implement transparency measures for DOT's review and selection process for discretionary grants. Such measures should, at a minimum, help to ensure that the evaluation process is clearly communicated, that applications are consistently evaluated, and that the rationale for DOT's decisions are clearly documented. Such measures should be developed in line with Office of Management and Budget guidance, federal internal control standards, and recommended practices for evaluating and selecting discretionary grant awards (Matter for Consideration 1)

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of November 2019, Congress has not enacted a reauthorization measure for surface transportation programs. The current authorization expires on September 30, 2020.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should ensure that DOT, in its notice of funding opportunity and evaluation plan for each remaining INFRA-funding cycle, clarify the circumstances under which DOT may select applicants to receive requests for additional information. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of November 2019, DOT told us that, for the fiscal year 2020 INFRA awards, it plans to provide information in the Notice of Funding Opportunity and evaluation plan explaining under the circumstances under which additional information may be sought from applicants. DOT stated that it plans to complete these actions by March 2020. We will continue to monitor DOT's actions.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should develop procedures for each remaining INFRA-funding cycle to ensure that when additional information is requested from an applicant, the specific rationale behind the request is documented (for example, to promote geographic diversity among projects), as well as to ensure that DOT documents the rationale if similar projects were not afforded an opportunity to provide additional information. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of November 2019, DOT told us it will document the basis for seeking additional information from applicants and describe the procedures for doing so in the evaluation plan for the FY 2020 INFRA awards, which it expects to conclude by September 2020. We will continue to monitor DOT's actions.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should ensure that DOT provides information to applicants in its notice of funding opportunity for each remaining INFRA-funding cycle regarding: (1) how scores on merit criteria are used, if at all, to determine whether projects advance to the Secretary for selection, and (2) how, if at all, DOT plans to use merit scores to determine which projects should receive an award. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of November 2019, DOT told us that, for the fiscal year 2020 INFRA awards, it plans to provide information in the Notice of Funding Opportunity that will more clearly state (1) that projects are advanced to the Secretary based on how they are evaluated against the selection criteria and (2) how evaluations against the selection criteria are used to determine which projects should receive awards. DOT stated that it plans to issue the Notice of Funding Opportunity by March 2020. We will continue to monitor DOT's actions.

Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should periodically review, and as appropriate, update the 2010 Pipeline Security and Incident Recovery Protocol Plan to ensure the plan reflects relevant changes in pipeline security threats, technology, federal law and policy, and any other factors relevant to the security of the nation's pipeline systems. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with this recommendation and stated that TSA will periodically review, and as appropriate, update the 2010 Pipeline Security and Incident Recovery Protocol Plan to ensure the plan reflects relevant changes in pipeline security threats, technology, federal law and policy, and any other factors relevant to the security of the nation's pipeline systems. In October 2019, TSA officials reported that they were in the process of reviewing the 2010 Pipeline Security and Incident Recovery Protocol Plan and anticipated completing the review by December 2019. However, this review was delayed and we will continue to monitor TSA's efforts to implement this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Associate Administrator of AST should develop workload metrics that encompass the whole office and that would allow AST to determine an appropriate workforce size and composition. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, AST has developed an initial set of metrics for the office's workload and is working with the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Labor Analysis to enhance and validate the metrics.

Recommendation: The Associate Administrator of AST should establish a timeline for finalizing workload projections that extend beyond the 2-year budget cycle and that include an approach for addressing uncertainty. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, AST said that it has extended the projection period of the staffing model to five years and that it is working with the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Labor Analysis to validate the extended projections and to include an approach to address uncertainty.

Recommendation: The Associate Administrator of AST should ensure that its skills assessment survey collects information from staff on skills and competencies in those areas that are both currently needed and may be needed in the future. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In May 2020, AST provided documentation showing that in November and December 2019, AST administered surveys to engineering staff and supervisors to assess the skills of engineering staff in specific competency areas that are needed to successfully perform their jobs. The documentation provided also showed that the surveys asked engineering staff and supervisors about the skills they believed AST would need in the future.

Recommendation: The Associate Administrator of AST should develop and document a plan for periodically assessing whether staff possess the necessary skills and competencies to achieve programmatic goals, such as annually administering a skills assessment survey. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In July 2020, AST officials told us they plan to assess employee skills and competencies on a 3-year cycle and that they will establish a process to do so by the end of 2020. We will continue to monitor AST's progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of TSA should assess Security Operations guidance for applying root causes for test failures, and identify opportunities to clarify how they should be applied. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: TSA concurred with this recommendation and said it would take steps to implement it. In March 2020, TSA officials reported that they are developing new guidance to help testers identify and record root causes for covert test failures. Once TSA completes this guidance and GAO has been provided a copy for review, we will close this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should clarify in the SCASDP evaluation plan how reviewers should assess a grant application's alignment with the priority and secondary selection criteria and assign the application rating categories. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Director of DOT's Office of Aviation Analysis should provide periodic external reporting, at a time interval DOT determines appropriate, to the public and policymakers, on the effects of antitrust immunity—based on the range of monitoring activities undertaken by DOT—including whether grants of immunity have achieved anticipated benefits and the status of remedies—such as airport slot divestitures—imposed as part of DOT's approval. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Office of Aviation Analysis
Status: Open

Comments: In September 2020, DOT provided information on updates to how research and other information on antitrust immunity is shared on its web site. We are reviewing this information to determine if it is sufficient to close the recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should recommend to the expert panel of the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria to update the Criteria to provide a standardized definition of underride crashes and to include underride as a recommended data field. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In the 180-day letter GAO received on July 15, 2019, DOT concurred with this recommendation. DOT also noted that NHTSA will recommend a crash underride data element for inclusion in the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria 6th Edition, tentatively scheduled for issuance in the summer of 2020.

Recommendation: The Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should provide information to state and local police departments on how to identify and record underride crashes. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In the 180-day letter GAO received on July 15, 2019, DOT concurred with this recommendation. DOT also noted that NHTSA--as well as FMCSA--will develop informational materials for state and local police departments that educate end users, such as police officers, on how to identify and record underride crashes. DOT plans to post the training materials on NHTSA's and FMCSA's public websites by the fall of 2021.

Recommendation: The Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should revise Appendix G of the agency's regulations to require that rear guards are inspected during commercial vehicle annual inspections. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In the 180-day letter GAO received on July 15, 2019, DOT concurred with this recommendation. DOT noted that FMCSA initiated a rulemaking to include rear impact guards on the list of items that must be examined as part of the required annual inspection of commercial motor vehicles. DOT added that the rulemaking would ensure that vehicles with missing or damaged rear guards would not satisfy the annual inspection criteria. FMCSA expects to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking in February 2020.

Recommendation: The Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should conduct additional research on side underride guards to better understand the overall effectiveness and cost associated with these guards and, if warranted, develop standards for their implementation. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In the 180-day letter GAO received on July 15, 2019, DOT concurred with this recommendation. DOT noted that NHTSA is conducting a review of police accident reports of light vehicle crashes into the side of trailers in order to (1) estimate the number of fatalities from side underride crashes and (2) understand the effectiveness of side underride guards in preventing and mitigating the severity of side underride crashes. NHTSA then plans to conduct an analysis of the impacts of requiring side underride guards on trucks and trailers. NHTSA plans to complete these analyses by September 2020.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should determine, in collaboration with transit stakeholders, whether additional transit workforce data are needed to identify potential future occupational shortages in the transit industry and whether the benefits of this collection would outweigh the cost of gathering it. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: On February 11, 2020 FTA stated that they anticipate issuing a notice of funding opportunity to establish a technical assistance center devoted to addressing the workforce development needs of the transit industry. They anticipate implementing this recommendation by January 31, 2021.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should develop and document a strategy that outlines how FTA will help address future transit workforce needs. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: On February 11, 2020 FTA stated that they anticipate issuing a notice of funding opportunity to establish a technical assistance center devoted to addressing the workforce development needs of the transit industry. They anticipate implementing this recommendation by January 31, 2021.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should develop and document clearly defined performance goals and measures for its transit workforce development efforts. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: DOT concurred with this recommendation and stated that FTA will enter into a cooperative agreement with a non-profit partner to develop and implement performance measures for FTA's workforce development efforts. FTA will coordinate with the Department of Labor on these measures. FTA plans to complete these actions by October 1, 2021.

Recommendation: The Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy should ensure that the Build America Bureau develop a detailed implementation plan that sets goals and a timeline for the Bureau's continued efforts, fills vacancies in the Bureau, and prioritizes and sequences work to carry out the multiple responsibilities given to the Bureau in the FAST Act. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, DOT is planning to develop a strategy with goals and objectives to guide the Bureau's work and to complete this action by August 2020. DOT stated it does not plan to create a detailed implementation plan as that would detract from higher priority efforts. We will continue to monitor DOT's actions and the extent to which they fulfill our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy should ensure that the Build America Bureau develop performance indicators to assess the Bureau's progress toward meeting its guiding principles or mission as a "one-stop shop." (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, DOT is planning to establish a baseline that tracks the average amount of time that projects spend in each of the key developmental phases to assess how long projects take to reach financial close and to complete this action by August 2020. This planned baseline and measure would align with one of the Bureau's four guiding principles, but additional measures would be needed to gauge its overall progress in meeting the Bureau's other guiding principles. We will continue to monitor DOT's actions and the extent to which they fulfill our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy should ensure that the Build America Bureau develop a mechanism to assess the Bureau's application evaluation process for TIFIA and RRIF and identify and address opportunities to improve and further streamline the process. This evaluation should include mechanisms to solicit feedback from project sponsors that sought financing. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, the Bureau is planning to develop a survey to solicit feedback from project sponsors on their experience with the Bureau and to have an approved survey ready for use by August 2020. We will continue to monitor DOT's actions and the extent to which they fulfill our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy should ensure that the Build America Bureau develop and adopt a public statement that outlines DOT's and the Bureau's policy goals and appetite for risk for the TIFIA and RRIF financing programs. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, DOT is planning to develop a strategy that outlines the Bureau's policy goals, but does not intend to issue a public statement that outlines DOT's and the Bureau's appetite for risk. According to DOT, a risk appetite statement would not be feasible given that the loan programs in the Bureau cover a diverse portfolio of publicly and privately funded projects covering a range of transportation modes that range widely in size, complexity, and financial structure. We informed DOT that we continue to believe that a risk appetite statement is both feasible and needed. DOT plans to provide an updated response in October 2020. We will review the Department's response and continue to monitor its actions and determine the extent to which they fulfill our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Labor should collaborate with the Secretary of Transportation to continue to convene key groups of stakeholders to gather information on potential workforce changes that may result from automated trucking as the technology evolves, including analyzing needed skills and identifying any information or data gaps, to allow the agencies to fully consider how to respond to any changes. These stakeholders could include, for example, representatives of other relevant federal agencies, technology developers, the trucking industry, organizations that represent truck drivers, truck driver training schools, state workforce agencies, and local workforce development boards. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Labor
Status: Open

Comments: DOL agreed with this recommendation. The agency noted several efforts that it said will help the agency assess and provide information on the potential workforce effects of evolving technologies, such as automated trucking. For example, DOL noted that the agency's employment projections incorporate expert interviews and other information to identify shifts in industry employment. DOL is also currently consulting with DOT to study these workforce effects, and agreed to consider what other information and stakeholder meetings remain necessary after that study-due in March 2019-is completed. Likewise, DOL agreed to share related information as the technology evolves, and the agency noted it currently publishes employment projections and other occupational information. While useful, these efforts alone will not allow DOL to sufficiently anticipate the future workforce effects of automated trucking. For instance, the broad employment projections do not provide estimates specifically for the long-haul truck drivers who could be affected by automated trucking first. Further, DOL's occupational information is based on surveys of current workers, so it does not include the skills future drivers will need as automated trucking evolves. Therefore, we continue to believe that convening stakeholders and sharing information about potential workforce effects in the future will position DOL to better understand and inform key stakeholders of these changes.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should collaborate with the Secretary of Labor to continue to convene key groups of stakeholders to gather information on potential workforce changes that may result from automated trucking as the technology evolves, including analyzing needed skills and identifying any information or data gaps, to allow the agencies to fully consider how to respond to any changes. These stakeholders could include, for example, representatives of other relevant federal agencies, technology developers, the trucking industry, organizations that represent truck drivers, truck driver training schools, state workforce agencies, and local workforce development boards. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT agreed with this recommendation. We will monitor the agency's progress to address it.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should consult with the Secretary of Labor to further analyze the potential effects of automated trucking technology on drivers to inform potential workforce-related regulatory changes, such as the requirements to obtain a commercial driver's license or hours of service requirements (e.g., the maximum hours commercial truck drivers are permitted to work). This could include leveraging the analysis described by the Explanatory Statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 once it is complete, as well as information the department obtains from stakeholders as the technology evolves. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT agreed with this recommendation. The agency noted two of its current efforts related to automated trucking technology, namely its October 2018 automated vehicles voluntary guidance, Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0, and its Congressionally-directed research on the impact of automated vehicle technologies on the workforce.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Labor should consult with the Secretary of Transportation to share information with key stakeholders on the potential effects of automated trucking on the workforce as the technology evolves. These stakeholders could include, for example, representatives of other relevant federal agencies, technology developers, the trucking industry, organizations that represent truck drivers, truck driver training schools, state workforce agencies, and local workforce development boards. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Labor
Status: Open

Comments: DOL agreed with this recommendation. The agency noted several efforts that it said will help the agency assess and provide information on the potential workforce effects of evolving technologies, such as automated trucking. For example, DOL noted that the agency's employment projections incorporate expert interviews and other information to identify shifts in industry employment. DOL is also currently consulting with DOT to study these workforce effects, and agreed to consider what other information and stakeholder meetings remain necessary after that study-due in March 2019-is completed. Likewise, DOL agreed to share related information as the technology evolves, and the agency noted it currently publishes employment projections and other occupational information. While useful, these efforts alone will not allow DOL to sufficiently anticipate the future workforce effects of automated trucking. For instance, the broad employment projections do not provide estimates specifically for the long-haul truck drivers who could be affected by automated trucking first. Further, DOL's occupational information is based on surveys of current workers, so it does not include the skills future drivers will need as automated trucking evolves. Therefore, we continue to believe that convening stakeholders and sharing information about potential workforce effects in the future will position DOL to better understand and inform key stakeholders of these changes.

Recommendation: The General Manager of WMATA should establish documented policies and procedures for the new capital planning process. These policies and procedures should include methodologies for ranking and selecting capital projects for funding in WMATA's fiscal year 2020 capital budget and fiscal years 2020-2025 Capital Improvement Program and for future planning cycles. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, WMATA prepared guidance and briefings for project managers to describe the new capital planning process for WMATA's fiscal year 2021 Capital Improvement Program, as well as for the FY 2021-2030 Capital Plan. WMATA's guidance states that WMATA will prioritize projects based on their alignment with WMATA's strategic and supplemental goals and project readiness. WMATA is currently developing the guidance for the FY 2022 Capital Improvement Program planning cycle, which was delayed by COVID-19. WMATA officials stated that they are also finalizing a Capital Program Planning Policy/Instruction document, and they will provide these guidance documents to GAO once completed. GAO will continue to assess whether these policies and procedures include a methodology for ranking and selecting capital projects for funding in future Capital Improvement Program cycles, as we recommended.

Recommendation: The General Manager of WMATA should develop performance measures to be used for assessing capital investments and the capital planning process to determine if the investments and planning process have achieved their planned goals and objectives. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, WMATA is in the process of finalizing the strategic criteria that will be used for the FY 2022 Capital Improvement Program Development process. Once the guidance is approved and issued, copies will be provided to GAO. During the FY 2022 Capital Planning process WMATA is working to define expected outcomes, or key performance indicators describing the success of a capital investment when completed. GAO will continue to assess whether these efforts will develop a means to sufficiently assess WMATA's capital investments and its capital planning process

Recommendation: The General Manager of WMATA should develop a plan for obtaining complete information regarding WMATA's asset inventory and physical condition assessments, including assets related to track and structures. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, WMATA is managing three efforts focused on improving WMATA's asset inventory and condition assessment processes. Specifically, WMATA reported that it is developing Data Governance and Standards rules and working with contractors to improve WMATA's asset inventory and condition assessment processes. According to WMATA officials, these efforts should all be complete by the end of 2020. GAO will continue to monitor WMATA's efforts to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: The General Manager of WMATA should conduct a comprehensive risk assessment of the track preventive maintenance program that includes both a quantitative and qualitative assessment of relevant program risks. In addition to considering technical program risks, WMATA should also consider broader program risks, such as the availability of funding for the program and stakeholders' support. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, WMATA reiterated information provided to GAO in October 2019 that it was developing and implementing a new Reliability Centered Maintenance process that will largely replace the previously established preventive maintenance program. According to WMATA, the Reliability Centered Maintenance process will enable WMATA to assess risks to its assets and implement strategies to mitigate those risks. However, WMATA reported that implementation of Reliability Centered Maintenance across the entire enterprise will take considerable time. GAO will continue to monitor WMATA's efforts to implement its Reliability Centered Maintenance process, including the degree to which it includes both a quantitative and qualitative assessment of relevant program risks, as we recommended for the previously existing preventive maintenance program.

Recommendation: The General Manager of WMATA should prepare a formal program management plan for the track preventive maintenance program that aligns with WMATA's strategic plan, addresses how the program is linked to overall strategic goals and objectives, and includes program milestones and decision points. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020 WMATA reported that it was developing and implementing a new Reliability Centered Maintenance process that will largely replace the previously established preventive maintenance program. According to WMATA officials, Reliability Centered Maintenance is not a preventive maintenance program itself, but that some of the programs have evolved from preventive maintenance to planned corrective maintenance, based on evaluation of effectiveness of the programs and recommendations from the engineering and maintenance teams. GAO will continue to monitor WMATA's efforts to implement its Reliability Centered Maintenance process, including: whether WMATA has made sufficient efforts to compile their various asset management strategies into a formal program management plan; whether this process is clearly linked to WMATA's overall strategic goals and objectives; and whether it includes milestones and decision points for its implementation, as we recommended for the previously existing preventive maintenance program.

Recommendation: The Office of the Secretary should assess the feasibility and cost of updating its airline case management system to address data and reporting limitations, and to undertake those updates that are cost effective and feasible. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT concurred with this recommendation and said it would take steps to update its case management tracking system. As of June, 2020, DOT has not provided an update regarding the status of its efforts to implement this recommendation. DOT indicated the agency would provide a response in the coming months, citing delays with workloads due to COVID-19. Once DOT provides a response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Office of the Secretary should establish performance measures for each of its objectives for its five key airline-compliance activities. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT concurred with this recommendation and said it would take steps to establish appropriate performance measures. As of June, 2020, DOT has not provided an update regarding the status of its efforts to implement this recommendation. DOT indicated the agency would provide a response in the coming months, citing delays with workloads due to COVID-19. Once DOT provides a response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Office of the Secretary should capture feedback directly from airline passengers or identify other mechanisms to capture passengers' perspectives to inform DOT's education efforts. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT concurred with this recommendation and said it would take steps to capture feedback directly from consumers. As of June, 2020, DOT has not provided an update regarding the status of its efforts to implement this recommendation. DOT indicated the agency would provide a response in the coming months, citing delays with workloads due to COVID-19. Once DOT provides a response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Office of the Secretary should develop performance measures for DOT's efforts to educate airline passengers. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT concurred with this recommendation and said it would take steps to develop appropriate performance measures for DOT's efforts to educate airline passengers. As of June, 2020, DOT has not provided an update regarding the status of its efforts to implement this recommendation. DOT indicated the agency would provide a response in the coming months, citing delays with workloads due to COVID-19. Once DOT provides a response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of FHWA, working with FRA, should evaluate the Section 130 Program's requirements to determine whether they allow states sufficient flexibility to adequately address current and emerging grade-crossing safety issues. As part of this evaluation, FHWA should determine whether statutory changes to the program are necessary to improve its effectiveness. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In June 2020, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) completed a summary report, in cooperation with the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, on stakeholder views of the Section 130 program requirements. As part of this evaluation, Volpe obtained feedback from stakeholders about their experience with the program requirements and their views on the flexibility of the requirements to address current and emerging grade-crossing safety issues. The report also contained a literature review. On August 17, 2020, FHWA reported to GAO that FHWA will continue to explore what statutory changes may be appropriate during the upcoming reauthorization cycle. The recommendation remains open because FHWA has not yet determined whether statutory changes to the program are necessary to improve its effectiveness. GAO will continue to monitor FHWA's efforts to implement this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should define and measure deferred maintenance for inland waterways in a way that enables the Corps to clearly communicate estimated costs for maintenance needs. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Army: Corps of Engineers
Status: Open

Comments: As of December 2019, the Corps has developed a definition for "deferred maintenance" for civil works and plans to request funding to establish a team to review maintenance data. The Corps anticipates implementing this recommendation by the end of 2020.

Recommendation: The Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should pursue ways to increase the Corps' ability to use available funding for inland waterways construction more efficiently and, should changes to the Corps' authority be necessary, develop a legislative proposal to request such authority. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Army: Corps of Engineers
Status: Open

Comments: As of December 2019, the Corps is working to review existing authorities, funding, and contracting mechanisms to identify potential courses of action to address GAO's recommendation. The Corps anticipates implementing this recommendation in 2021.

Recommendation: WMATA's General Manager should conduct a comprehensive assessment of the financial risks to which WMATA is exposed from its pension plans and communicate the results to its pension plan trustees and other stakeholders, such as its Board of Directors. This assessment should include information about WMATA's current and potential future required payments and unfunded liabilities, including under potentially adverse economic scenarios. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, WMATA stated that the authority periodically evaluates the risks posed by the unfunded liabilities for its pension plans and other post-employment benefits. Specifically, WMATA officials stated that consulting agencies are used to conduct sensitivity analysis regarding the funded status of WMATA's five pension plans under various economic scenarios. However, WMATA has not yet provided GAO with these analyses to assess what information they contain and whether they include information on potential future required payments and unfunded liabilities under adverse scenarios. GAO will continue to work with WMATA to obtain these analyses and monitor WMATA's progress in addressing this recommendation.

Recommendation: WMATA's General Manager should develop a strategic workforce planning process that (1) sets a strategic direction for WMATA's workforce planning and involves employees and other stakeholders in developing and communicating the process, and (2) includes a data-driven assessment of the critical skill and competencies WMATA needs to fill any gaps. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, WMATA officials stated that the Authority did not provide funding in 2019 to obtain a consultant to assist with authority-wide strategic workforce planning, as WMATA had previously planned. WMATA officials told us that the Authority is evaluating funding availability for this effort in the upcoming fiscal year, but in consideration to the impacts of the coronavirus crisis, broad economic uncertainties, and other challenges facing the Authority. WMATA did not provide information as to whether it would be conducting additional workforce planning efforts using its in-house staff and resources. GAO will continue to monitor WMATA's efforts to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: WMATA's General Manager should establish comprehensive policies and procedures for both of its performance management systems that document the goals of the systems and individuals' responsibilities for implementing these systems; align employee performance objectives with all of WMATA's strategic goals; and define performance objectives, rating categories, and competencies tailored to individual positions' responsibilities. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, WMATA created documented procedures for managers and staff who are not represented by a union to use in the performance management cycles for fiscal years 2019 and 2020. These included guidance, instructional videos, or other tools for setting employee performance objectives in relation to WMATA's strategic priorities, and conducting mid-year reviews and end-of year performance evaluations. WMATA reported that it also intends to develop procedures to support performance management for some of its union-represented employees, starting in fiscal year 2021 with the Metro Transit Police Department. WMATA expects to implement changes for other represented employee groups beginning in fiscal year 2022. GAO will continue to monitor WMATA's progress in addressing this recommendation.

Recommendation: WMATA's General Manager should establish controls to ensure supervisors fully and accurately complete employee performance reviews and submit them to human resources within established timeframes. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, WMATA has taken steps to establish controls for its employee performance management system. Specifically, WMATA developed an automated tool to track employee and supervisor compliance with WMATA's performance management requirements, and provided GAO with information on how WMATA used this tool to set employee performance objectives and complete mid-year reviews in the fiscal year 2020 performance cycle. WMATA reported that end-of-year performance evaluations would be completed by the end of July 2020. GAO will review WMATA's completion of the 2020 performance cycle to process to assess whether WMATA has fully implemented our recommendation.

Recommendation: WMATA's General Manager should develop a documented process to use employee performance management information to monitor progress toward WMATA's strategic goals. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, WMATA officials told us that its automated performance management tool will provide information on employee performance information across the organization and allow for data-driven decision making. Specifically, WMATA stated that managers can view year-end ratings and other information for every employee within their chain of command, and WMATA's senior leadership have a global view of the ratings to compare performance ratings distributions across departments. WMATA reported that it is currently completing its fiscal year 2020 performance cycle, which ends July 31, 2020. GAO will continue to follow WMATA's progress addressing this recommendation, including assessing whether the information in its automated performance management tool will help WMATA monitor progress toward achieving its strategic goals.

Recommendation: The Administrator of the U.S. Seaway Corporation should establish a process to identify, analyze, and monitor risks to the system's use to inform future actions to address those risks. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation
Status: Open

Comments: As of August 2020, DOT reported that the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC) is in the process of completing development of its new risk management program and anticipates having a final product that will be implemented by the end of 2020. GAO will continue to monitor the SLSDC's progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: FTA should determine which on-demand services qualify as "public transportation" based on the statutory definition and disseminate information to clarify whether and how to report data from such services into the National Transit Database (NTD). (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: DOT concurred with this recommendation. As of September 2018, FTA planned to implement it by updating its NTD manual to include a new data collection field for on-demand services provided by Transportation Network Companies (TNC) in order to track these separately from other types of on-demand services. FTA will post a proposed update to clarify whether and how to report TNC-provided services into the NTD. FTA plans to post the proposed revisions along with specifications for which on-demand services qualify as "Public transportation" to the NTD policy in the Federal Register for comment. As of May 2020, FTA anticipated completing these actions by November 30, 2020.

Recommendation: The Principal Deputy Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service should direct the Fish and Wildlife Service to develop plans and time frames for improving its new consultation tracking system and develop appropriate internal controls, such as electronic safeguards and other data-entry procedures, to ensure accurate data on the time taken for consultations. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of the Interior: United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Status: Open

Comments: The Fish and Wildlife Service concurred with this recommendation and said it would take steps to implement it. When we confirm what actions the Fish and Wildlife Service has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The FTA Administrator should initiate a rulemaking regarding the evaluation and rating process for Core Capacity Improvement projects, consistent with statutory provisions. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, DOT indicated that the Department was working to determine what actions it will take regarding initiating a rulemaking. When we confirm what actions DOT has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Chairman of the National Mediation Board should develop and execute a plan to address the rail arbitration case backlog. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: National Mediation Board
Status: Open

Comments: NMB agreed with this recommendation and stated that it is examining the growing arbitration backlog and investigating steps the Board may take to reduce it. In particular, the agency noted that it is discussing proposals with stakeholders and formulating a plan to reduce the backlog in 2018.

Recommendation: The Chairman of the National Mediation Board should develop and implement policies for approval and monitoring of employee requests for outside employment and other outside activities to prevent violations of ethics rules, consistent with Office of Government Ethics standards of conduct and federal internal control standards. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: National Mediation Board
Status: Open

Comments: NMB agreed with this recommendation. The agency stated that it has taken significant steps to investigate this matter and has established new controls in order to prevent this type of activity in the future, including establishing a relationship with the IG of the National Labor Relations Board to operate a telephone hotline and email address for the reporting of suspected fraud, waste and abuse at NMB.

Recommendation: The Chairman of the National Mediation Board should complete and take actions on the organizational climate assessment and survey results as a means to address employee concerns. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: National Mediation Board
Status: Open

Comments: NMB agreed with this recommendation. The agency stated that the Board is concerned that the 2017 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey revealed a level of dissatisfaction among NMB employees. It plans to conduct an Internal Climate Assessment in 2018 and agency looks forward to the opportunity to better understand and address any employee concerns.

Recommendation: The Chairman of the National Mediation Board should revise NMB's travel policy and develop appropriate internal controls to ensure compliance with federal requirements for travel. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: National Mediation Board
Status: Open

Comments: NMB agreed with this recommendation. The agency stated that it is in the process of reviewing the current travel policy, and will revise the policy to be in compliance with federal travel regulations as necessary.

Recommendation: The Chairman of the National Mediation Board should revise NMB's telework policy and develop appropriate internal controls to ensure compliance with federal requirements for telework. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: National Mediation Board
Status: Open

Comments: NMB agreed with this recommendation and stated that it will revise its telework policy and strengthen internal controls, as necessary.

Recommendation: The Office of Transit Safety and Oversight should develop and communicate a method for how it will monitor the effectiveness of the enforcement authorities and practices of state safety agencies. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: DOT concurred with this recommendation. DOT should continue its progress to developing and communicating a methodology for how it will monitor the effectiveness of state safety agencies' enforcement.

Recommendation: The FHWA Administrator should offer and provide guidance or technical assistance to NEPA assignment states on developing evaluation methodologies, including baseline time frames and timeliness measures. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2020, FHWA has not agreed to offer and provide guidance or technical assistance on evaluation methodologies for NEPA assignment states. GAO continues to believe further evaluation guidance is needed, and will continue to monitor FHWA's actions.

Recommendation: The Secretaries of Defense and of Transportation should address ADS-B Out security concerns by approving one or more solutions that address ADS-B Out -related security risks or incorporating mitigations for security risks into the existing draft memorandum of agreement. These approved solutions should address operations, physical, cyber-attack, and electronic warfare security risks; and risks associated with divesting secondary-surveillance radars. The solution or mitigations should be approved as soon as possible in order to allow sufficient time for implementation.

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. As of August 2018, DOD and the FAA signed a memorandum of agreement that that establishes a framework for DOD and FAA to jointly address the provision to allow certain aircraft not to broadcast and airspace monitoring and defense security issues related to ADS-B, and identifies a path to fully address the recommendations in our report. The memorandum of agreement was a first step to address the security issues we highlighted in the report; however, FAA still needs to publish a National Procedural Guidance for accommodation of DOD needs for mixed-equipment operations and operational security concerns (expected December 2018).

Recommendation: The Secretaries of Defense and of Transportation should address ADS-B Out security concerns by approving one or more solutions that address ADS-B Out -related security risks or incorporating mitigations for security risks into the existing draft memorandum of agreement. These approved solutions should address operations, physical, cyber-attack, and electronic warfare security risks; and risks associated with divesting secondary-surveillance radars. The solution or mitigations should be approved as soon as possible in order to allow sufficient time for implementation.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT concurred with this recommendation. As of August 2018, DOD and the FAA signed a memorandum of agreement that that establishes a framework for DOD and FAA to jointly address the provision to allow certain aircraft not to broadcast and airspace monitoring and defense security issues related to ADS-B, and identifies a path to fully address the recommendations in our report.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should direct DOD components to implement key tasks that would facilitate consistent, long-term planning and implementation of NextGen--such as those tasks that the Deputy Secretary of Defense originally directed in 2007, or any tasks that the Secretary deems appropriate based on a current assessment of the original tasks.

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. As of August 2018, DOD has not taken action regarding the eight tasks GAO identified in the 2007 Deputy Secretary of Defense memorandum on ADS-B implementation.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should fulfill the CSLCA mandate to include ensuring a balance of risk between the federal government and launch companies as part of FAA's MPL methodology evaluation by reexamining the current probability thresholds. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In March 2020 Department of Transportation (DOT) officials stated that FAA had not yet finished reexamining the current maximum probable loss (MPL) probability thresholds or completed a subsequent rulemaking to address the probability thresholds. The officials also stated that FAA's focus for the prior two years has been on streamlining the launch and reentry license regulations (SLR2) rulemaking in response to the President's Space Policy Directive 2, which contains the National Space Council's recommendations for commercial space regulatory reform. According to the officials, this effort will continue through 2020, and that after it is completed, FAA will evaluate whether to begin a new rulemaking to address MPL analyses.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should fulfill the CSLCA mandate to analyze the cost impact of implementing its revised MPL methodology by evaluating the impact on the direct costs of launch companies and the federal government. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In March 2020, Department of Transportation (DOT) officials stated that FAA had not yet finished reexamining the current maximum probable loss (MPL) probability thresholds or completed a subsequent rulemaking to address the probability thresholds. The officials also stated that FAA's focus for the prior two years has been on streamlining the launch and reentry license regulations (SLR2) rulemaking in response to the President's Space Policy Directive 2, which contains the National Space Council's recommendations for commercial space regulatory reform. According to the officials, this effort will continue through 2020, and that after it is completed, FAA will evaluate whether to begin a new rulemaking to address MPL analyses.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should fulfill the CSLCA mandate to evaluate its MPL methodology in consultation with the commercial space sector and insurance providers by consulting with those entities on the cost impact of its revised MPL methodology, including an updated cost-of-casualty amount, on the launch industry and the federal government. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In March 2020, Department of Transportation (DOT) officials stated that FAA had not yet finished reexamining the current maximum probable loss (MPL) probability thresholds or completed a subsequent rulemaking to address the probability thresholds. The officials also stated that FAA's focus for the prior two years has been on streamlining the launch and reentry license regulations (SLR2) rulemaking in response to the President's Space Policy Directive 2, which contains the National Space Council's recommendations for commercial space regulatory reform. According to the officials, this effort will continue through 2020, and that after it is completed, FAA will evaluate whether to begin a new rulemaking to address MPL analyses.

Recommendation: The FAA Administrator should establish an estimated completion date for developing and implementing a plan to establish guidance on the most appropriate MPL methodologies and tools to use for each launch. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In March 2020, Department of Transportation (DOT) officials stated that FAA had not yet finished reexamining the current maximum probable loss (MPL) probability thresholds or completed a subsequent rulemaking to address the probability thresholds. The officials also stated that FAA's focus for the prior two years has been on streamlining the launch and reentry license regulations (SLR2) rulemaking in response to the President's Space Policy Directive 2, which contains the National Space Council's recommendations for commercial space regulatory reform. According to the officials, this effort will continue through 2020, and that after it is completed, FAA will evaluate whether to begin a new rulemaking to address MPL analyses.

Recommendation: Once reliable data are available, the Coast Guard, or another agency identified by the working group, should assess the rates of commercial fishing vessel accidents, injuries, and fatalities to determine whether certain factors--including vessel length and region of operation, among other things--affect these rates. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Coast Guard
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not concur with our recommendation that the Coast Guard assess the rates of commercial fishing vessel accidents, injuries, and fatalities to determine whether certain factors-such as vessel length and region of operation-affect these rates. DHS officials stated that the Coast Guard has limited resources and capabilities to conduct such assessments and noted that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) studies marine incidents to identify causal factors in fishing vessel casualties, which could more effectively determine casualty rates. The Coast Guard uses this information to update and develop commercial fishing vessel safety standards and policy, as appropriate. GAO agrees that NIOSH plays an important role in identifying commercial fishing fatalities and regional risk factors, but such assessments typically focus on fatalities in specific fisheries, and generally did not consider such factors as vessel length or whether the vessel has been classed. As of July 2020, Coast Guard officials stated the Coast Guard continues to work with other Federal partners on data collection strategies through the established work group to determine the best reliable data in order to establish credible rates of casualties, injuries, and fatalities in the commercial fishing vessel industry. This recommendation will remain open pending a decision by the working group on the appropriate agency to conduct these assessments.

Recommendation: The Coast Guard should issue regulations or guidance to clarify and implement the alternative-to-class approach. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Coast Guard
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Homeland Security concurred with our recommendation that the Coast Guard issue regulations or guidance to clarify and implement the alternative-to-class approach. As of November 2018, the Coast Guard made a presentation to the commercial fishing industry clarifying the alternative-to-class approach as it relates to commercial fishing vessels including discussion topics such as understanding the language of 46 USC 4503 and State Licensed Naval Architect and Marine Engineers' scope of responsibilities when incorporating standards equivalent to those prescribed by a classification society. As of June 2020, Coast Guard officials stated they have formalized work instruction guidance regarding implementation of the alternative-to-class approach. This guidance is expected to be released by the end of 2020.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should develop and implement a comprehensive plan to better manage departmental initiatives related to automated vehicles. This plan should include leading principles such as goals, priorities, steps to achieve results, milestones, and performance measures to track progress. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: In July 2018, DOT released an initial plan related to this recommendation in response to congressional direction. This plan outlines DOT's overall approach for managing policy and research issues related to automated vehicles across DOT's modal administrations. In January 2020, DOT and the National Science and Technology Council released Ensuring American Leadership in Automated Vehicle Technologies (AV 4.0), building on prior policies that DOT has identified as actions regarding its implementation of GAO's recommendation. DOT has yet to identify, for example, performance measures to monitor and gauge results. Without a comprehensive plan, it continues to be unclear whether DOT is adequately tackling automated vehicle challenges.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should develop an evaluation plan for the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program in advance of issuing the notice of funding opportunity and ensure the program's evaluation plan clearly defines how all review teams should apply criteria, assess applications, and assign ratings to ensure that all applications are consistently reviewed. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In 2019, we found that DOT's evaluation plan for the INFRA 2017-2018 round of funding was not finalized prior to DOT's issuance of the notice of funding opportunity. In addition, we raised concerns with a lack of documentation outlining why members of the INFRA senior review team followed up with some applicants over others. DOT told us that, for the fiscal year 2020 INFRA awards, it plans to provide information in the Notice of Funding Opportunity and evaluation plan explaining under the circumstances under which additional information may be sought from applicants. DOT stated that it plans to complete these actions by March 2020. We will continue to monitor DOT's actions.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should ensure all program applicants be notified in writing of the outcomes of the application selection process. For unsuccessful applicants, the notification should include a brief explanation of the decision. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT officials told us that they formally notified unsuccessful INFRA applicants of selection decisions via email and offered applicants the chance to schedule a debriefing with DOT officials. As of January 2020, we are assessing DOT's actions.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should require INFRA program teams document their decision-making rationale throughout all levels of review in the application selection process. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In 2019, we again raised concerns with the lack of documentation outlining DOT's rationale for its INFRA award decisions, as well as a lack of documentation regarding why members of the senior review team followed-up with some applicants over others. DOT stated that it would work to address these issues by updating its internal guidance. We will continue to monitor DOT's actions.

Recommendation: The Administrator of TSA should explore and pursue methods to assess the deterrent effect of TSA's passenger aviation security countermeasures; such an effort should identify FAMS—a countermeasure with a focus on deterring threats—as a top priority to address. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with this recommendation and has begun taking steps intended to address it. In May 2018, officials with DHS's Requirements and Capabilities Analysis (RCA) reported conducting a literature review to identify ways DHS might be able to measure deterrence. ORCA officials reported looking to published studies and other agencies to identify data sources and methods, and were in the process of developing a model to assess the deterrent value of various aviation security countermeasures. In July 2019, TSA officials reported that they were continuing to develop this model which could better inform deployment of deterrence-related countermeasures. As of October 2020, DHS has provided no further updates on steps taken to implement this recommendation. To fully address this recommendation, TSA will need to fully develop this or another method to assess the deterrent effect of TSA's aviation security countermeasures.

Recommendation: To increase transparency and obtain information to better inform decisions on whether to investigate potentially unfair or deceptive practices in the air ambulance industry, the Secretary of Transportation should assess available federal and industry data and determine what further information could assist in the evaluation of future complaints or concerns regarding unfair or deceptive practices.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (the Act), signed into law on October 5, 2018, directed the establishment of an Air Ambulance and Patient Billing (AAPB) Advisory Committee. The Act also required the committee to make recommendations on a variety of topics, including what additional data from air ambulance providers and other sources should be collected by DOT to improve its understanding of the industry. On September 12, 2019, DOT announced the formation of the AAPB Advisory Committee, including the appointment of 13 members. The first meeting of the AAPB Advisory Committee was held in January 2020. Soon after this meeting, three subcommittees were established, including one on Disclosure and Distinction of Charges and Coverage for Air Ambulance Services and another on Prevention of Balance Billing. Subcommittee meetings began in March 2020, although given the impact of COVID-19, the subcommittee meets scheduled for April and May 2020 were postponed. Pursuant to the Act, the AAPB Advisory Committee is to submit a report containing its recommendations not later than 180 days after the date of its first meeting. GAO will continue to monitor the work of the AAPB Advisory Committee related to this recommendation.

Recommendation: To increase transparency and obtain information to better inform decisions on whether to investigate potentially unfair or deceptive practices in the air ambulance industry, the Secretary of Transportation should consider consumer disclosure requirements for air ambulance providers, which could include information such as established prices charged, business model and entity that establishes prices, and extent of contracting with insurance.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (the Act), signed into law on October 5, 2018, directed the establishment of an Air Ambulance and Patient Billing (AAPB) Advisory Committee. The Act also required the committee to make recommendations on a variety of topics, including the recommendations from this GAO report. On September 12, 2019, DOT announced the formation of the AAPB Advisory Committee, including the appointment of 13 members. The first meeting of the AAPB Advisory Committee was held in January 2020. Soon after this meeting, three subcommittees were established, including one on Disclosure and Distinction of Charges and Coverage for Air Ambulance Services and another on Prevention of Balance Billing. Subcommittee meetings began in March 2020, although given the impact of COVID-19, the subcommittee meets scheduled for April and May 2020 were postponed. Pursuant to the Act, the AAPB Advisory Committee is to submit a report containing its recommendations not later than 180 days after the date of its first meeting. GAO will continue to monitor the work of the AAPB Advisory Committee related to this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works should direct the Director of Civil Works to determine whether existing tools and capabilities (such as the Corps' analyses and models related to inland harbors' conditions and freight traffic, as well as shoaling effects at coastal ports) can be adapted to help evaluate other factors when allocating funds from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. The Corps should report to Congress on the feasibility, limitations, and potential costs and on an estimate of any additional funds needed to use such an approach to meet the statutory requirements.

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Army: Office of the Assistant Secretary (Civil Works)
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with our recommendation. As of December 2019, officials from the Corps stated that they are working to develop additional metrics for dredging decisions and will brief congressional committees on the results. We will continue to follow the Corps' progress in addressing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To help ensure that NTTFI is able to provide quality information to support management and program oversight efforts, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to coordinate with the Federal Highway Administration and tribal stakeholders and reexamine the need for road-description and condition data currently collected in the NTTFI and eliminate fields that do not serve an identified purpose.

Agency: Department of the Interior
Status: Open

Comments: In June 2019, Interior reported that the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) and Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) efforts to coordinate with tribes and the Tribal Transportation Program Coordinating Committee (TTPCC) to address this recommendation were progressing. Established by federal regulations, TTPCC is the committee comprised of 24 tribal representatives that provides input and makes recommendations to the BIA and FHWA. According to Interior, TTPCC has identified data elements--14 of 54 data fields--to be considered for removal from NTTFI, and BIA and FHWA have held discussions with tribes concerning a draft plan to remove these identified data elements from NTTFI. Interior reported that tribal groups have posed no objections to the plan and that they anticipate the plan being implemented later in the year. We will continue to monitor actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To help ensure that NTTFI is able to provide quality information to support management and program oversight efforts, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to for fields determined to have continued relevance for management and program oversight take steps to improve the quality of these data by clarifying guidance in the NTTFI coding guide that tribes use to collect data and by providing additional guidance on steps needed to ensure that data are consistently reported.

Agency: Department of the Interior
Status: Open

Comments: In June 2019, Interior reported that a group of tribal users organized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to review the NTTFI and the coding guide was progressing in its efforts to recommend updates to the coding guide. According to Interior, the group has made recommendations to the Tribal Transportation Program Coordinating Committee (TTPCC) on which data elements to remove from the NTTFI and for clarifying guidance in the coding guide, relevant to the data elements proposed to remain in the NTTFI. Interior anticipates that updates to the coding guide based on the group's recommendations will be completed in 2019. We will continue to monitor actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To help ensure that NTTFI is able to provide quality information to support management and program oversight efforts, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to establish a process to monitor data to facilitate timely and targeted corrections to missing or erroneous data.

Agency: Department of the Interior
Status: Open

Comments: Interior told us that, along with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), it has held several meetings with tribal users to identify missing or erroneous data in the NTTFI. For example, the meeting participants identified that data which were formerly but are no longer used in formulas to allocate federal funding to tribes are likely outdated and not useful. Further, recognizing that approximately 70 percent of NTTFI data reflects inventory and condition information of roads owned by non-BIA and non-tribal entities, such as state and local governments, the meeting participants determined that opportunities exist to work with these external entities to monitor data obtained from them to ensure that it is current and accurate for use and display in the NTTFI. As of June 2019, Interior said that, in anticipation of changes to the NTTFI format, its main actions to address this recommendation will be to coordinate with these external entities to monitor the data they provide to NTTFI to ensure it conforms to NTTFI's new format. We will continue to monitor actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the DMR, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to develop a means to document when the level of service for each road section was last evaluated.

Agency: Department of the Interior
Status: Open

Comments: In June 2019 Interior reported that BIA had developed a data reporting process that incorporates use of a "time-stamp" to indicate when the level of service for a road section is evaluated. Interior said that it anticipates providing guidance on this process to BIA staff, tribes, and others that perform level of service road maintenance assessments so that they can implement the process in 2020. We will continue to monitor efforts to implement this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the DMR, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to develop and maintain documentation supporting the unit costs of maintenance used to estimate maintenance needs.

Agency: Department of the Interior
Status: Open

Comments: In June 2019 Interior reported that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) had surveyed tribes to determine their capabilities for managing data related to road maintenance costs. Interior further reported that BIA was investigating the use of computer software for tracking road maintenance costs and developing estimates of maintenance needs. Interior said that it expects to complete actions to implement this recommendation in 2020. We will continue to monitor actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the DMR, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to develop a process for more complete and accurate reporting occurring under existing authority of Road Maintenance Program funds expended for performed maintenance on BIA roads.

Agency: Department of the Interior
Status: Open

Comments: In its official comments on our report, Interior said that that it cannot reasonably accomplish this recommendation because, in reference to the tribes which have agreements with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to maintain BIA roads in their area, it conflicts with the intent of federal law and the minimum-reporting requirements when a tribal entity takes over the day-to-day actions and tasks of a program. However, following our report's issuance, Interior told us that its actions to address other recommendations will assist the tribes in developing data on Road Maintenance Program (RMP) funds expended for performed maintenance on BIA roads. In addition, Interior said that tribes have expressed interest in gathering this data. Further, in June 2019, Interior reported that the Tribal-Interior Budget Council had approved a plan for a pilot project in the BIA Great Plains Region to gather data relevant to addressing this recommendation. Even though tribal reporting of this data is voluntary, we continue to believe that by coordinating with affected tribes on developing a process for their self-reporting of RMP funds expended for maintenance, and by implementing such a process for tribes that BIA serves directly, Interior could improve the reporting of maintenance performed on BIA roads and be better positioned to provide Congress with more accurate and complete information on RMP funding decisions. We will continue to monitor actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To best align resources allocation decisions to needs, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to review the formula to fund transportation at BIE schools and determine, with BIA and tribal stakeholders, what adjustments, such as distinguishing between gravel and paved roads, are needed to better reflect transportation costs for schools.

Agency: Department of the Interior
Status: Open

Comments: At the time of our report, Interior said that it concurred with this recommendation; however, it subsequently changed its position. Interior noted that its tribal and school partners have not requested changes to this formula and that it was therefore not compelled to undertake the rigorous consultation and negotiated rulemaking actions that would be needed to change the formula. As of June 2019, Interior has not acted to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To help FAA better manage and oversee its portfolio of R&D activities, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FAA to take a more strategic approach to identifying research priorities across the agency, including developing guidance to identify long-term priorities and emerging issue areas, as part of FAA's portfolio development process.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In June 2019, FAA issued a redesigned National Aviation Research Plan (NARP) for 2017/2018. In September 2019, FAA officials told GAO that the redesigned NARP helped the agency take a more strategic approach to identifying research priorities. FAA officials also said that the agency has taken actions to understand emerging aviation issues requiring FAA's research attention and those emerging issues will be incorporated into future plans. In June 2020, FAA officials told us that they are developing guidance--to be finalized by December 2020--to ensure that future NARPs continue to take a strategic approach. GAO will review FAA's actions to implement the recommendation once the guidance is completed.

Recommendation: To help FAA better manage and oversee its portfolio of R&D activities, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FAA to develop guidance to ensure that future National Aviation Research Plans (NARP) and R&D Annual Reviews meet statutory requirements to the extent practicable, including (a) The NARP lists activities that are carried under cooperative agreements. (b) The NARP describes the rationale for the prioritized research programs. (c) The NARP identifies how resources were allocated for long-term and near-term research. (d) The NARP identifies REDAC recommendations that are accepted, not accepted, and the reasons for non-acceptance. (e) The NARP provides a detailed description of technology transfer to government, industry, and academia. (f) The Annual Review describes new technologies developed and the dissemination of research results to the private sector. (g) The Annual Review allows a comparison to the NARP. (h) The Annual Review is prepared and presented in accordance with agency performance reporting requirements.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In June 2019, FAA issued a redesigned the National Aviation Research Plan (NARP) to include, among other things, information required by statue. In June 2020, FAA officials told us that they redesigned the R&D Annual Review in 2019 to also address the statutory requirements. The officials said that they are also in the process of revising guidance that the agency uses to develop the NARP and R&D Annual Review to ensure that future documents meet statutory requirements. FAA plans to finalize the guidance by December 2020. GAO will review FAA's actions to implement the recommendation once FAA provides GAO the redesigned R&D Annual Review and once guidance for both the NARP and R&D Annual Review are completed.

Recommendation: To ensure future large-scale rehabilitation projects are in line with leading project management practices, WMATA should develop a policy that requires and includes relevant procedures specifying that, prior to starting large-scale projects, WMATA should use detailed data on the conditions of assets to develop project objectives and scope.

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, WMATA is managing three efforts focused on improving WMATA's asset inventory and condition assessment processes. Specifically, WMATA reported that it is developing Data Governance and Standards rules and working with contractors to improve WMATA's asset inventory and condition assessment processes. These efforts should all be complete by the end of 2020. GAO will continue to monitor WMATA's efforts to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To ensure future large-scale rehabilitation projects are in line with leading project management practices, WMATA should develop a policy that requires and includes relevant procedures specifying that, prior to starting large-scale projects, WMATA should evaluate and compare alternative ways of accomplishing the project objectives, including estimates for the alternatives' costs and impacts.

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, WMATA has implemented a new process to evaluate major projects. More specifically, WMATA's new initiative includes a process for assessing and presenting alternative strategies for selected major projects. WMATA currently has a number of cases moving through this process for the first time, and GAO will assess the outcomes of these cases as well as the extent to which this process is codified in WMATA policies later in 2020.

Recommendation: To ensure future large-scale rehabilitation projects are in line with leading project management practices, WMATA should develop a policy that requires and includes relevant procedures specifying that, prior to starting large-scale projects, WMATA should develop a comprehensive project management plan for the selected alternative--to include key elements such as detailed plans for managing the project's scope, schedule, and cost--for those projects that may not be designated major capital projects.

Agency: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Status: Open

Comments: As of July 2020, WMATA is updating its Infrastructure Project Implementation Manual, which would cover projects such as new construction and rehabilitation of facilities and systems. WMATA is planning to issue the update for the Project Implementation Manual by end of September 2020. GAO will continue to monitor WMATA's progress in addressing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the awareness of how risk-significant radioactive sources are transported within the United States and to better determine whether Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is meeting its goal of providing reasonable assurance for preventing the theft or diversion of these dangerous materials, the Chairman of NRC should take actions to collect information from licensees on the number of shipments and mode of transport for such sources--for example, by identifying the extent to which an existing NRC database (e.g., the National Source Tracking System) may be used to capture this information.

Agency: Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Status: Open

Comments: In its February 26, 2018 report to Congress on actions NRC has taken in response to GAO recommendations, NRC continued to disagree with the recommendation to expand its existing data collection requirements or to transition such information from its existing NRC databases to the NSTS. NRC stated that, as required by 10 CFR Part 37, "Physical Protection of Category 1 and Category 2 Quantities of Radioactive Material," the NRC currently collects the number of shipments and mode of transport for domestic transfers, and the import and export of Category 1 quantities of radioactive material. Additionally, under the provisions of 10 CFR Part 110, "Export and Import of Nuclear Material," the NRC stated that it collects the number of shipments and mode of transport for the import and export of shipments containing Category 2 or higher quantities of radioactive material. The NRC stated that it is the agency's position that the current information collected provides the NRC with an understanding of the potential modes of transport for Category 1 and 2 quantities of radioactive material and existing regulatory requirements provide robust protection for all such modes. The NRC stated that it does not consider the proposed additional information collection activity to be of sufficient safety or security benefit to justify the associated regulatory actions it would require. In August 2019, and again in August 2020, the NRC reaffirmed its disagreement with this recommendation and that it did not intend to take action to implement it. Despite its disagreement with this recommendation, we will continue to monitor whether NRC takes any actions that would result in addressing the concern GAO raised.

Recommendation: To better ensure spaceport operators' understanding of FAA's financial responsibility regulations for commercial space launches, the Secretary of Transportation should ensure that the FAA Administrator provides additional communication to clarify FAA's interpretation of the financial responsibility regulations for commercial space launches. The forms of communication could include, among other things, issuing additional guidance or using other forums to clarify when a spaceport operator is a third party to a launch and when it is not.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In May 2018, FAA officials said that they were working towards implementing the recommendation, but did not have documented efforts at this time and do not have an estimated completion date.

Recommendation: To continue the agency's efforts to improve state and local emergency preparedness for rail accidents involving hazardous materials, the Secretary of Transportation should, after the rulemaking is finalized, develop a process for regularly collecting information from state emergency response commissions on the distribution of the railroad-provided hazardous-materials-shipping information to local planning entities.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT published the Oil Spill Response Plans and Information Sharing for High-Hazard Flammable Trains final rule in February 2019. As of September 2020, PHMSA indicated that it wanted to close out the recommendation by adding 2 questions to the Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grant application asking SERCs whether they receive information on High-Hazard Flammable Train operations and whether they are disseminating this information to local planning entities. OMB is currently reviewing the additional information request. We will continue to monitor DOT's efforts to address the recommendation.

Recommendation: To inform DOT's development of its national freight strategy and associated freight efforts, such as states' development of freight plans, newly established freight funding programs, and advancing DOT's efforts to implement national freight policies, in the development of the freight data strategy, the Secretary of Transportation should include a specific plan to identify: (1) appropriate freight data sources, information, and analytic tools for transportation modes involved in the freight network and supply chains; (2) data gaps that could help both the agency and states and local governments in the development of their freight plans, and an approach for addressing obstacles to developing high-quality, reliable supply chain information; (3) current and planned efforts that can provide insights into supply chains and their impacts on freight networks; and (4) how DOT plans to use the supply chain information and analytical tools to inform freight planning and programming.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT concurred with this recommendation. As of March 2020, DOT had not issued the National Freight Strategic Plan, but DOT officials stated that they are planning to issue it in 2020. To fully implement this recommendation, in the national strategy, DOT should include plans to identify data sources, gaps, information on supply chains and freight networks, and on how DOT will use this information.

Recommendation: To determine whether CSA interventions influence motor carrier safety performance, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FMCSA Administrator to identify and implement, as appropriate, methods to evaluate the effectiveness of individual intervention types or common intervention patterns to obtain more complete, appropriate, and accurate information on the effectiveness of interventions in improving motor carrier safety performance. In identifying and implementing appropriate methods, FMCSA should incorporate accepted practices for designing program effectiveness evaluations, including practices that would enable FMCSA to more confidently attribute changes in carriers' safety behavior to CSA interventions.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: FMCSA has reviewed the methodology for its effectiveness model and identified many of the same limitations GAO discussed in its report. FMCSA also identified several approaches to address these limitations, including modifying its model to measure individual intervention types. However, as of July 2020, FMCSA had not implemented any of its proposed approaches.

Recommendation: To enable FMCSA management to monitor the agency's progress in achieving its effectiveness and efficiency outcomes for CSA interventions and balance priorities, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FMCSA Administrator to establish and use performance measures to regularly monitor progress toward both FMCSA's effectiveness outcome and its efficiency outcome.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) plans to establish an inventory of effectiveness and efficiency measures and monitor performance on an ongoing basis. FMCSA is working to modify its model to measure the effectiveness of individual intervention types. However, as of July 2020, it had not implemented any of its proposed modifications.

Recommendation: As DOT, in response to the FAST Act, conducts additional evaluation and analysis of ECP brakes and updates the regulatory impact analysis, the Secretary of Transportation should direct FRA and PHMSA to create a plan to collect data from railroads' ongoing and future operational experiences using ECP brakes. The plan should include details on how the agency will work with railroads to collect this data, ensure that such data are reliable, and analyze these data to conduct a retrospective analysis of the ECP brakes requirement that could help inform any potential future actions regarding ECP brakes.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In December 2017, DOT announced that it would rescind the electronically-controlled pneumatic (ECP) brake rule because its updated Regulatory Impact Analysis estimated that the rule's costs would exceed its benefits. Subsequently, in September 2018, DOT rescinded the ECP brake rule. As a result, DOT confirmed with us in August 2019 that it does not intend to create a plan to collect data from railroads' use of ECP brakes.

Recommendation: As DOT, in response to the FAST Act, conducts additional evaluation and analysis of ECP brakes and updates the regulatory impact analysis, if, based on its updated analysis, DOT promulgates a new rule on the applicable ECP brake system requirements, the Secretary of Transportation should direct FRA and PHMSA to require that freight railroads, once they equip with ECP brakes in response to the requirement, collect and provide data to FRA on their ongoing operational experience with ECP brakes.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In December 2017, DOT announced that it would rescind the electronically-controlled pneumatic (ECP) brake rule because its updated Regulatory Impact Analysis estimated that the rule's costs would exceed its benefits. DOT subsequently rescinded the ECP brake rule in September 2018. As a result, this recommendation is currently no longer relevant and DOT confirmed with us in August 2019 that it does not plan to implement this regulation.

Recommendation: To enhance FAA's risk-based approach for oversight of repair stations, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to develop and implement a process in Flight Standards for incorporating into SAS the volume of critical maintenance that each U.S. airline contracts to repair stations.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: FAA did not concur with this recommendation. In July 2019, GAO confirmed that FAA does not plan to implement the recommendation because the agency continues to believe the subjective nature of volume of work makes it an ineffective risk indicator. However, the agency monitors many factors as primary risk indicators at repair stations. Many of these risk indicators are associated with important aspects of work volume such as high workforce turnover; changes in management; rapid growth or downsizing; changes in aircraft complexity/programs; financial conditions; age of fleet and increases in aircraft discrepancies. FAA considers these factors and the criticality of a specific maintenance action on an aircraft to be the most important risk indicators.

Recommendation: To enhance FAA's risk-based approach for oversight of repair stations, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to develop and implement an evaluative process with measurable performance goals and measures to determine the effectiveness of SAS as the SMS safety assurance component.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In July 2019, GAO confirmed that FAA plans to develop overall program goals and metrics as part of the next implementation phase of its new Safety Assurance System. These metrics are expected to be fully developed based on the final design of the new system and the program requirements identified. Final system testing and deployment into production for the Safety Assurance System is expected to be completed by February 2021, with final implementation scheduled to be completed by May 2022. Additionally, prior to deploying the system, FAA plans to provide training courses to the aviation safety workforce who will be using the new system, and plans to issue new policy documentation in June 2020 that will be used to provide additional guidance to that workforce on properly using the system.

Recommendation: To promote the transition to improved crash test standards, to strengthen FHWA's oversight of the roadside safety hardware's crash-testing process, and to make more information available to states and industry on how roadside safety hardware performs in actual conditions, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of FHWA to provide additional guidance to crash test labs and accreditation bodies to ensure that labs have a clear separation between device development and testing in cases where lab employees test devices that were developed within their parent organization.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of January 2020, FHWA has not determined what actions, if any, it plans to take to address this recommendation. During 2019, FHWA officials stated that the agency was planning, in consultation with state departments of transportation, to establish a mechanism for third party verification of results from crash-test labs. The initial plan was to work with an outside organization that would assume responsibility for third party verification by mid to late 2020. This outside organization was to be responsible for developing guidelines with respect to lab independence and dealing with cases where a testing lab and a hardware developer are owned by the same parent company. According to FHWA officials, while the agency engaged with two outside organizations, it has not been able to establish a mechanism for third party verification of results through an outside organization and is considering additional options. As a result, FHWA is re-evaluating actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To promote the transition to improved crash test standards, to strengthen FHWA's oversight of the roadside safety hardware's crash-testing process, and to make more information available to states and industry on how roadside safety hardware performs in actual conditions, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of FHWA to develop a process for third-party verification of results from crash-test labs.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of January 2020, FHWA has not determined what actions, if any, it plans to take to address this recommendation. During 2019, FHWA officials stated that the agency was planning, in consultation with state departments of transportation, to establish a mechanism for third party verification of results from crash-test labs. The initial plan was to work with an outside organization that would assume responsibility for third party verification by mid to late 2020. According to FHWA officials, while the agency engaged with two outside organizations, it has not been able to establish a mechanism for third party verification of results through an outside organization and is considering additional options. As a result, FHWA is re-evaluating actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To promote the transition to improved crash test standards, to strengthen FHWA's oversight of the roadside safety hardware's crash-testing process, and to make more information available to states and industry on how roadside safety hardware performs in actual conditions, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of FHWA to support additional research and disseminate results on roadside safety hardware's in-service performance, either as part of future phases of FHWA's current pilot study on guardrail end terminals' performance or as part of FHWA's broader research portfolio.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of January 2020, FHWA officials stated that the agency expects the pilot program report to be issued in December 2020, but it will not report results because the sample sizes were too small. In addition, officials told us that no further research into in-service performance evaluations are planned.

Recommendation: To better ensure that FAMS uses its resources to cover the highest-risk flights, in addition to considering risk when determining how to divide FAMS's international flight coverage resources among international destinations, the Director of FAMS should incorporate risk into FAMS's method for initially setting its annual target numbers of average daily international and domestic flights to cover.

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration: Office of Law Enforcement - Federal Air Marshal Service
Status: Open

Comments: In May 2016, we found that FAMS officials considered risk when selecting specific domestic and international flights to cover, but they did not consider risk when deciding how to initially divide their annual resources between domestic and international flights. Rather, each year FAMS considered two variables--travel budget and number of air marshals--to identify the most efficient way to divide the agency's resources between domestic and international flights. As a result, we recommended that FAMS incorporate risk into FAMS's method for initially setting its annual target numbers of average daily international and domestic flights to cover. In March 2018, FAMS revised its deployment methodology to no longer set an annual target number of average daily international and domestic flights to cover. Rather, FAMS now prioritizes deploying air marshals on as many flights as possible with passengers who have been identified as potentially higher risk because they match TSA's intelligence-based screening rules, among other risk-based priorities. In August 2020, FAMS officials explained that they were evaluating their concept of operations and planned to more fully develop a risk basis for dividing its resources between international and domestic flights. By doing so, FAMS could better ensure it is targeting its limited resources to the highest risk flights and better aligning with FAMS's stated goal of using risk-based decisions to guide mission operations. As a result, this recommendation remains open.

Recommendation: To improve the consistency and completeness of Amtrak's financial reporting and to provide Congress with accurate information to make funding decisions, the President of Amtrak should ensure that Amtrak's depreciation expenses are appropriately allocated to its lines of business once the underlying capital asset data are determined reliable.

Agency: National Railroad Passenger Corporation
Status: Open

Comments: As of April 2020, Amtrak had not allocated its depreciation costs to its lines of business, as we recommended. In 2019, Amtrak stated that federal law required Amtrak to allocate and report its capital spending by line of business. Amtrak further stated that depreciation expense is a good proxy for capital spending and that the changed reporting requirements eliminated the need to report depreciation by line of business. In addition, although Amtrak's external auditor did not find any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in Amtrak's fiscal year 2019 audited financial statement-the most recent available-those statements do not allocate Amtrak's depreciation costs to its various business lines. We will update this recommendation's status with any new information from Amtrak.

Recommendation: In addition, to better inform congressional decision making regarding the funding of Northeast Corridor infrastructure improvements, the Northeast Corridor Commission should work with its members to establish criteria for its members to use in selecting and prioritizing capital projects to be included in future editions of its 5-year capital plan.

Agency: Northeast Corridor Commission
Status: Open

Comments: As of April 2020, the Northeast Corridor (NEC) Commission and its members had yet to establish criteria for selecting and prioritizing capital projects in its 5-year capital plan. The Commission staff told GAO that it had developed potential criteria for selecting projects for both regional and NEC-wide priorities to be included the Northeast Corridor Capital Investment Plan, Fiscal Years 2020 - 2024, published in April 2019 and updated in December 2019. However, those potential criteria were not formally adopted by the Commission members. Specifically, the Commission's proposed criteria for selecting NEC-wide priorities included projects that would prevent the potential severing of the Northeast Corridor and advance state-of-good repair. Proposed criteria for regional priorities included projects that would increase train capacity and improve passenger access to rail services. While the proposed criteria were not used to select or prioritize projects in the Capital Investment Plan, Fiscal Years 2020 - 2024, the plan presented the proposed criteria as "benefits" for the projects in that plan. While this information may be helpful to stakeholders in understanding some of the rationale for the inclusion of projects in the plan, it does not demonstrate that the Commission and its members have established formal criteria for selecting and prioritizing projects, as GAO recommended. GAO will continue to monitor the Commission's progress in addressing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To help improve the U.S. aviation sector's preparedness for future communicable disease threats from abroad, the Secretary of Transportation should work with relevant stakeholders, such as the Department of Health and Human Services, to develop a national aviation-preparedness plan for communicable disease outbreaks. Such a plan could establish a mechanism for coordination between the aviation and public health sectors and provides clear and transparent planning assumptions for a variety of types and levels of communicable disease threats.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: The Department of Transportation (DOT) has not developed a national aviation-preparedness plan to respond to communicable disease threats from abroad. In June 2020, we urged Congress to take legislative action to require the Secretary of Transportation to work with relevant agencies and stakeholders to develop a national aviation-preparedness plan to limit the spread of communicable disease threats, and minimize travel and trade impacts (see GAO-20-625). GAO's periodic updates on the CARES Act of 2020 provide information about actions taken by Congress to address this matter. DOT partially concurs with our recommendation and agrees that an aviation preparedness plan is needed, but continues to suggest that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have responsibility for communicable disease response and preparedness planning, respectively, and that these departments should lead any efforts to address planning for communicable disease outbreaks, including for transportation. In the absence of a national aviation-preparedness plan, DOT officials point to ongoing efforts to engage with interagency partners at DHS and HHS, as well as industry stakeholders, to better collaborate on communicable disease response and preparedness as they relate to civil aviation. For example, in July 2020, DOT, HHS, and DHS issued guidance to airports and airlines for implementing measures to mitigate public health risks associated with COVID-19. While this guidance is a positive step, DOT has not yet taken action to develop an aviation preparedness plan for future communicable disease threats that incorporate such things as protocols for responding to the threat and coordination among stakeholders.

Recommendation: Congress may wish to consider directing DOT to study and provide a report to Congress identifying approaches for extracting, storing, and analyzing electronically collected motor carrier drivers' schedule data, including the potential benefits, privacy, and cost concerns, and options for how such concerns could be mitigated.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, Congress has taken no action to direct DOT to study this matter.

Recommendation: If, in the next authorization for FAA, Congress chooses to mandate that FAA take actions to streamline and reform the agency, Congress may wish to consider requiring FAA to (1) track measures of and (2) report to Congress on the actual results of such efforts.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2019, Congress has passed several FAA authorization extensions and the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 that did not include any actions related to this matter. We will continue to monitor legislation, and when we determine what steps the Congress has taken regarding this matter, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: To promote and enhance federal, state, and local NEMT coordination activities, the Secretary of Transportation, as the chair of the Coordinating Council, should convene a meeting of the member agencies of the Coordinating Council and complete and publish a new or updated strategic plan that, among other things, clearly outlines a strategy for addressing NEMT and how it can be coordinated across federal agencies that fund NEMT service.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) concurred with this recommendation. The Department of Transportation (DOT), which chairs the Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility (Coordinating Council) and provides administrative support and staff, has made some progress to enhance coordination of NEMT programs through the development of a new or updated strategic plan, as GAO recommended in December 2014, but coordination at the federal level remains limited. In October 2019, the Coordinating Council adopted a new strategic plan as recommended by GAO. However, DOT indicated that strategies for coordinating NEMT across federal agencies would not be fully articulated until November 2020 when it plans to issue a report to the President and Congress. Until the report is finalized, the Coordinating Council may be missing an opportunity to identify and align goals and strategies for increased NEMT coordination with the benefits of coordination, such as increased program efficiency or reduced costs.

Recommendation: To promote and enhance federal, state, and local NEMT coordination activities, the Secretary of Transportation, as the chair of the Coordinating Council, should convene a meeting of the member agencies of the Coordinating Council and finalize and issue a cost-sharing policy and clearly identify how it can be applied to programs under the purview of member agencies of the Coordinating Council that provide funding for NEMT.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: FTA concurred with this recommendation. The Department of Transportation (DOT), which chairs the Coordinating Council and provides administrative support and staff, has made minimal progress to develop and issue a cost-sharing policy, as GAO recommended in December 2014, which would allow agencies to identify and allocate costs among programs. In October 2019, the Coordinating Council adopted a new strategic plan. DOT plans to include a cost sharing policy as part of a report to the President and Congress in September 2020. According to DOT officials, they have begun the process of soliciting and including input from Coordinating Council agencies to develop the elements of the report, including the cost sharing policy, as of December 2019. The development of a cost sharing policy would provide federal guidance on how to address cost sharing issues across agencies and help facilitate ride and vehicle sharing. Until the Coordinating Council develops federal cost allocation principles for transportation providers, federal agencies may be unable to address cost-sharing issues across agencies such as ride and vehicle sharing.

Recommendation: To promote and enhance federal, state, and local NEMT coordination activities, the Secretary of Transportation, as the chair of the Coordinating Council, should convene a meeting of the member agencies of the Coordinating Council and using the on-going work of the Health, Wellness, and Transportation working group and other appropriate resources, (1) identify the challenges associated with coordinating Medicaid and VA NEMT programs with other federal programs that fund NEMT, (2) develop recommendations for how these challenges can be addressed while still maintaining program integrity and fraud prevention, and (3) report these recommendations to appropriate committees of Congress. To the extent feasible, the Coordinating Council should implement those recommendations that are within its legal authority.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: FTA said they concurred in part with this recommendation. The Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act requires the Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility (Coordinating Council) to develop and publish a strategic plan. The Department of Transportation (DOT), which chairs the Coordinating Council and provides administrative support and staff, has made some but minimal progress to address the challenges associated with coordinating Medicaid and VA NEMT programs and other federal programs, as GAO recommended in December 2014. In October 2019, the Coordinating Council adopted a new strategic plan. According to DOT, it has made progress identifying challenges associated with coordinating Medicaid and VA NEMT programs, in part through the use of focus groups and a survey conducted by the National Center for Mobility Management. DOT expects it will include recommendations for addressing the challenges identified in a November 2020 report to the President and Congress. As of December 2019, DOT had begun the process of soliciting input from Coordinating Council agencies into these recommendations. Until DOT's assessment to identify and address coordination challenges is completed, agencies will be limited in coordinating Medicaid and VA NEMT programs with other federal programs that fund NEMT.

Recommendation: In order to improve NMB's planning and make the most effective use of its limited resources, the Chairman of the National Mediation Board should develop and fully implement key components of an information security program in accordance with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002.

Agency: National Mediation Board
Status: Open

Comments: In February 2020, we determined that NMB had taken some steps to further implement key information security practices, but had not fully implemented this recommendation. We reported in GAO-20-236 that NMB continued to only partially follow the eight key information security practices in accordance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). NMB must take other steps, such as providing risk assessment documentation of its enterprise network for fiscal year 2019. NMB officials stated that the agency plans to address several of these practices by the end of fiscal year 2020. They further noted that they hired a Chief Information Officer and planned to hire additional staff and employ contractors to aid in these efforts.

Recommendation: In order to improve NMB's planning and make the most effective use of its limited resources, the Chairman of the National Mediation Board should establish a privacy program that includes conducting privacy impact assessments and issuing system of record notices for systems that contain personally identifiable information.

Agency: National Mediation Board
Status: Open

Comments: In February 2020, we reported in GAO-20-236 that NMB had taken some steps to implement information privacy practices, such as designating a privacy officer. However, NMB must take additional steps, such as specifying whether a system of records notice would be developed, as required by the Office of Management and Budget.

Recommendation: To ensure that up-to-date data are available on the road damages imposed by all vehicles types compared with the revenues each contributes to the Highway Trust Fund, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FHWA Administrator to revise and publish the agency's Highway Cost Allocation Study and update it periodically as warranted.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: As of April 2020, FHWA stated it does not plan to revise and publish the agency's Highway Cost Allocation Study because of the cost of doing so and the uncertainty about whether and how it would be used. GAO continues to believe that up to date information on the cost of road damage imposed by all vehicle types compared with the revenues contributed by those vehicles to the Highway Trust Fund is needed to help determine whether user fees are sufficient to cover damage costs. Moreover, Congress and the administration need to agree on a long-term sustainable plan for balancing spending from and revenues to the Highway Trust Fund and, for this reason, funding surface transportation is on GAO's High Risk List. GAO will continue to monitor any efforts by DOT and FHWA to respond to our recommendation.

Recommendation: In order to provide states with greater flexibility to pursue a range of strategies to address the various factors contributing to motorcycle crashes and fatalities, Congress should consider allowing states to use the Motorcyclist Safety Grants for purposes beyond motorcyclist training and raising motorist awareness of motorcycles.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of September 2020, Congress has taken no action to implement this matter. GAO will continue to monitor Congressional action related to this matter to determine if either an extension or reauthorization of the current surface transportation program includes changes that would allow states to use the Motorcyclist Safety Grants for purposed beyond motorcyclist training and raising motorist awareness of motorcycles.

Recommendation: To enhance FAA's efforts to improve general aviation safety, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to improve measures of general aviation activity by requiring the collection of the number of hours that general aviation aircraft fly over a period of time (flight hours). FAA should explore ways to do this that minimize the impact on the general aviation community, such as by collecting the data at regular events (e.g., during registration renewals or at annual maintenance inspections) that are already required.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In July 2019, GAO confirmed that FAA still does not plan to collect General Aviation (GA) flight hour data during registration renewals or annual maintenance inspections because this would require rulemaking and could have a significant economic and paperwork impact on the GA industry. While FAA has made changes to the GA Activity Survey to improve the accuracy of the flight hour data collected for a sample of GA populations, FAA still does not plan to collect all GA flight hour data as part of its GA Activity Survey. GAO maintains that without comprehensive GA flight hour data, estimates from the GA Activity Survey may not be sufficient for drawing conclusions about changes in crash rates over time and that more precise flight hour data could allow FAA to better target its safety efforts within the GA industry.

Recommendation: To enhance FAA's efforts to improve general aviation safety, and to ensure that ongoing safety issues are addressed, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to set specific general aviation safety improvement goals--such as targets for fatal accident reductions--for individual industry segments using a datadriven, risk management approach.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In July 2019, GAO confirmed that FAA still does not plan to develop safety targets for different segments of the General Aviation (GA) industry. While FAA's General Aviation Joint Steering Committee was exploring metrics for monitoring different GA industry segments, it was determined that developing credible metrics was not feasible using the GA Activity Survey. GAO maintains that FAA needs to develop specific general aviation safety improvement targets for individual industry segments to support a data-driven, risk management approach.

Recommendation: To enhance FAA's efforts to improve general aviation safety, and to determine whether the programs and activities underlying the 5-year strategy are successful and if additional actions are needed, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to develop performance measures for each significant program and activity underlying the 5-year strategy.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: FAA reported it established performance measures for significant programs and activities underlying its 5-year strategy. However, as of July 2019 FAA has still not provided GAO with documentation of these performance measures. Without this documentation, GAO cannot confirm that the agency has developed performance measures for each significant program and activity underlying its 5-year strategy.

Recommendation: To help maximize the use of available capacity at slot-controlled airports, enhance competition through greater airline access to slots, and enhance transparency of slot information, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FAA Administrator to apply slot rules to individual slots, as opposed to pools of slots within a slot period.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In January 2015, the FAA issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the New York City area airports. The proposal included changes to how the FAA would determine compliance with minimum slot usage rules similar to GAO's recommendation and the WSG. Under that concept, a slot would only be considered for a flight or series of flights in a single slot and not potentially applied or averaged to more than one slot. The NPRM was withdrawn by DOT and FAA in April 2016 to allow further evaluation of recent changes in demand, competition, operations, and other factors in the New York City area airports. The FAA and the Office of the Secretary continue to evaluate the circumstances at the New York City area airports and DCA and, if necessary, will consider steps to ensure compliance with minimum slot usage, including future rulemaking. In March 2018, DOT indicated that it has no plans to initiate a rulemaking on this issue. As of June 2019, DOT plans no further action on this recommendation. However, GAO believes this recommendation continues to have merit.

Recommendation: With respect to possible future regulatory action, the DOT Secretary should consider requiring airlines to schedule a certain percentage, or all, of their slot allocations, similar to practices maintained elsewhere in the world.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: The Department concurs that any future rulemaking should consider changes to the minimum slot usage rules to improve slot utilization at the slot controlled airports and provide greater harmonization with industry standards applied at airports outside the U.S. The FAA and the Department of Transportation stated that they will evaluate the circumstances at the New York City area airports and DCA and, if necessary, will consider steps to improve slot utilization, including future rulemaking. As of June 2019, DOT plans no further action on this recommendation. However, GAO believes this recommendation continues to have merit.

Recommendation: To better ensure that federal investments effectively address the remaining airport noise problem and to more fully demonstrate the results of AIP noise grants, the Secretary of Transportation should direct FAA to establish a strategic noise reduction goal that aligns with the nature and extent of airport noise and targets the agency's noise grant program.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In August 2019, FAA officials stated that the FAA's overall noise reduction goal is fundamentally separate from noise mitigation. At the same time, FAA indicated that airport noise is a growing concern and highlighted multiple aspects of the agency's noise-related activities, including providing community workshops associated with changes to air traffic procedures and continued support for noise compatibility planning by airports. The noise grant program continues to be FAA's largest noise-related activity. Until FAA aligns its strategic noise goal with the noise grant program, it is difficult to see how this program's results contribute to the achieving agency objectives.

Recommendation: To better ensure that federal investments effectively address the remaining airport noise problem and to more fully demonstrate the results of AIP noise grants, the Secretary of Transportation should direct FAA to establish performance measures to assess progress toward this goal that better demonstrate the results of the program and provide Congress and FAA's program managers with information to gauge progress and make programmatic decisions.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In August 2019, FAA officials stated that the FAA's overall noise reduction goal is fundamentally separate from noise mitigation. Absent FAA actions to align this goal with the noise grant program, FAA cannot develop measurements of noise grant program results that gauge progress towards such a goal. Without this information, Congress and FAA program managers cannot make fully informed decisions about what the noise grant program can reasonably be expected to address in the future and the extent to which noise exposure remains a constraint on airport growth.

Recommendation: As we have previously recommended, Congress should consider reexamining and refocusing surface transportation programs, including establishing well-defined goals with direct links to identified federal interests and roles. Based on this review, there may be areas where national interests are less evident and where Congress may wish to consider narrowing FHWA's responsibilities.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of November 2019, Congress has not yet acted on this recommendation. The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act; P.L. 114-94), signed into law in December 2015, is due to be reauthorized in fiscal year 2021.

Recommendation: To enhance the safety of unregulated onshore hazardous liquid and gas gathering pipelines, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the PHMSA Administrator to collect data from operators of federally unregulated onshore hazardous liquid and gas gathering pipelines, subsequent to an analysis of the benefits and industry burdens associated with such data collection. Data collected should be comparable to what PHMSA collects annually from operators of regulated gathering pipelines (e.g., fatalities, injuries, property damage, location, mileage, size, operating pressure, maintenance history, and the causes of incidents and consequences).

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: PHMSA plans to collect data on previously unregulated hazardous liquid and natural gas gathering lines via rulemakings. PHMSA issued a final rule that covers data collection for hazardous liquid gathering pipelines in October 2019. As of May 2020, PHMSA anticipates issuing the final rule for natural gas pipelines by Fall, 2020.

Recommendation: To establish accountability for meeting the programs' goal of increasing the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups in the highway construction workforce, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FHWA Administrator to create and implement an oversight mechanism that (1) holds states accountable for meeting federal training criteria and (2) clearly stipulates how FHWA will assess state program effectiveness, including what type of program achievement data states are to submit and how such data will be used. This oversight mechanism should include assessing the effectiveness of its division offices in overseeing state activities.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: FHWA has taken initial steps to implement a mechanism for state oversight, which includes collecting program implementation information from each state. FHWA plans to convene a working group to review this information and provide feedback to states on their programs. FHWA officials then anticipate sharing best practices and essential requirements for the program through webinars and other technical assistance. As of August 2019, FHWA has gathered information from states and is in the early stages of implementing this oversight mechanism.

Recommendation: To strengthen formal collaboration efforts, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development should direct the appropriate program offices, to develop a plan to ensure that data collected on the various programs of the agencies related to affordable housing and transit are sufficient to measure the agencies' performance toward goals and outcomes established in the HUD-FTA action plan and the Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development
Status: Open

Comments: On November 30, 2009, we received a response from HUD stating that actions were planned or underway to address this and the other recommendation in this report. As of July 2019, we are reviewing additional documentation provided by DOT and HUD on actions they have taken.

Recommendation: To strengthen formal collaboration efforts, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development should direct the appropriate program offices, to develop a plan to ensure that data collected on the various programs of the agencies related to affordable housing and transit are sufficient to measure the agencies' performance toward goals and outcomes established in the HUD-FTA action plan and the Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

Agency: Department of Transportation: Federal Transit Administration
Status: Open

Comments: On November 30, 2009, we received a response from HUD stating that actions were planned or underway to address this and the other recommendation in this report. As of July 2019, we are reviewing additional documentation provided by DOT and HUD on actions they have taken.

Recommendation: To support the triennial review program's goal of having grantees consistently meet more federal requirements, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the FTA to ensure that additional outcome and quality performance measures are balanced with the existing measures for assessing the timeliness of the triennial review program so that one priority is not emphasized at the expense of others.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: Federal Transit Administration (FTA) anticipates adding a performance measurement, called reduction in repeat findings, that relates to assessing the quality of the review. This has been added to FTA's new Quality Review program focused on improving its Triennial Review program.

Recommendation: In order to develop an approach to decision making and the development of evidence on high-clockspeed trends affecting highway safety that are characterized by uncertainty, the Secretary of Transportation should consider and evaluate practices and principles for making decisions under conditions of uncertainty and for using data in such decision making and, on that basis, develop an approach to guide decision making on high-clockspeed trends that, although somewhat uncertain, may affect highway safety.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In GAO-09-56, GAO recommended the Secretary of Transportation consider and evaluate practices and principles for making conditions under uncertainty and for using data in light of issues encountered in developing evidence on high-clockspeed trends affecting highway safety that are characterized by uncertainty. GAO had studied driver distraction involving electronic devices, in particular cell phones with texting capability and identified these evolving electronic devices as a high clockspeed trend. DOT reports several actions on distracted driving, specifically: (1) an Executive Order to federal employees not to engage in text messaging while driving government-owned vehicles; when using electronic equipment supplied by the government while driving; or while driving privately owned vehicles when they are on official business; (2) the Secretary called on state and local governments to (a) make distracted driving part of their state highway plans, (b) pass state and local laws against distracted driving in all types of vehicles, (c) back up public awareness campaigns with high-visibility enforcement actions; (3) the Secretary directed the Department to establish an on-line clearinghouse on the risks of distracted driving and also (4) pledged to continue the Department's research on how to best combat distracted driving. DOT also notes that the Department's www.distraction.gov website provides information on the latest data on distracted driving and that 34 states have passed laws against texting and driving since the 2009 announcement by the Secretary of DOT.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Transportation should evaluate whether or not new approaches to data collection are needed to better track new trends related to highway safety.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT has not responded to this recommendation.

Recommendation: In order to improve the information available to the Congress for reauthorization, the Secretary of Transportation should analyze and report on trends currently anticipated to affect highway safety through 2020 and beyond in a systematic fashion--including information on high-clockspeed trends, discussion of evidence about these and other individual trends, their implications and potential interactions, and DOT responses.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT has not responded to this recommendation, but DOT announced a distracted driving summit September 30-October 1, 2009, with a limited number of invitees, and invited the GAO Assistant Director on this report to participate. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stated that the purpose of the summit is to "to address the dangers of text-messaging and other distractions behind the wheel." The summit will include "senior transportation officials, elected officials, safety advocates, law enforcement representatives and academics" who will convene in Washington, DC "to discuss ideas about how to combat distracted driving."

Recommendation: In order to improve the information available to the Congress for reauthorization, the Secretary of Transportation should determine, in consultation with relevant congressional committees, schedules for periodic reporting that will be sufficiently frequent to update the Congress on fast-changing trends.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: DOT has not responded to this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the effectiveness of the federal investment in surface transportation, meet the nation's transportation needs, and ensure a sustainable commitment to transportation infrastructure, Congress may wish to consider reexamining and refocusing surface transportation programs to be responsive to these principles so that they institute tools and approaches to that emphasize the return on the federal investment.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of November 2019, Congress has not yet acted on this recommendation. The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act; P.L. 114-94), signed into law in December 2015, is due to be reauthorized in fiscal year 2021.

Recommendation: To improve the effectiveness of the federal investment in surface transportation, meet the nation's transportation needs, and ensure a sustainable commitment to transportation infrastructure, Congress may wish to consider reexamining and refocusing surface transportation programs to be responsive to these principles so that they address the current imbalance between federal surface transportation revenues and spending.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of November 2019, Congress has not yet acted on this recommendation. The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act; P.L. 114-94), signed into law in December 2015, did not address the current imbalance between federal surface transportation revenues and spending. The Act is due to be reauthorized in fiscal year 2021.

Recommendation: In order to improve freight mobility by more clearly defining the federal role in the freight transportation network and to begin to align federal investments with economically significant national benefits, the Secretary of Transportation should develop with Congress and public and private sector stakeholders a comprehensive national strategy for freight transportation. This national strategy should include defining the federal role and national interests in freight transportation, including economically-based and objective criteria to identify areas of national significance for freight transportation and to determine whether federal funds are required in those areas.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: To fully implement this recommendation, DOT should complete and issue a National Freight Strategic Plan. As part of the development of the National Freight Strategic Plan, DOT should include defining the federal role in freight transportation, including economically-based and objective criteria to identify areas of national significance for freight transportation and to determine whether federal funds are required in those areas. As of February 2020, DOT had not issued the National Freight Strategic Plan and DOT officials said they were planning to issue the strategy by the end of 2020.

Recommendation: In order to improve freight mobility by more clearly defining the federal role in the freight transportation network and to begin to align federal investments with economically significant national benefits, the Secretary of Transportation should develop with Congress and public and private sector stakeholders a comprehensive national strategy for freight transportation. This national strategy should include establishing the roles of regional, state, and local governments, as well as the private sector.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: To fully implement this recommendation, DOT should complete and issue a National Freight Strategic Plan. As part of the development of the National Freight Strategic Plan, DOT should include establishing the roles of regional, state, and local governments, as well as the private sector. As of February 2020, DOT had not issued the National Freight Strategic Plan and DOT officials said they were planning to issue the strategy by the end of 2020.

Recommendation: In order to improve freight mobility by more clearly defining the federal role in the freight transportation network and to begin to align federal investments with economically significant national benefits, the Secretary of Transportation should develop with Congress and public and private sector stakeholders a comprehensive national strategy for freight transportation. This national strategy should include using new or existing federal funding sources and mechanisms to support a targeted, cost-effective, and sustainable federal role in freight transportation.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: To fully implement this recommendation, DOT should complete and issue a National Freight Strategic Plan. As part of the development of the National Freight Strategic Plan, DOT should include using new or existing federal funding sources and mechanisms to support a targeted, cost-effective, and sustainable federal role in freight transportation. As of February 2020, DOT had not issued the National Freight Strategic Plan and DOT officials said they were planning to issue the strategy by the end of 2020.

Recommendation: In order to put the Emergency Relief program on a sound financial footing, Congress may wish to consider the expected future demands on the program and reexamine the appropriate level and sources of funding--including whether to increase the $100 million annual authorized funding and whether the Highway Trust Fund, the General Fund, or some combination would allow the program to accomplish its purpose in a fiscally sustainable manner.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of November 2019, Congress has not yet taken action on this recommendation. The Emergency Relief Program is due to be reauthorized in 2020.

Recommendation: Congress may also wish to consider tightening the eligibility criteria for Emergency Relief funding, either through amending the purpose of the Emergency Relief program, or by directing FHWA to revise its program regulations. Revised criteria could include limitations on the use of Emergency Relief funds to fully finance projects with scope and costs that have grown as a result of environmental and community concerns.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: As of November 2019, Congress has not yet taken action on this recommendation. The Emergency Relief Program is due to be reauthorized in 2020.