Summary

The Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is authorized to provide about $42 billion for transit programs for fiscal years 1998 through 2003. It does so through grants for activities such as the construction of transit systems--to states and local and regional transportation providers that meet a number of requirements. The requirements include Department of Labor (DOL) certification that labor protection arrangements are adequate to protect the interest of employees affected by federal transit assistance. However, FTA's processing of grant applications was neither timely nor consistent. For example, less than half of the applications in a 21-month period were processed within FTA's informal 90-day goal. DOL was more timely, providing labor protection certification for 93 percent of the grant applications within 60 days of receipt. DOL is also working to make information about certification decisions more available. To help shorten the application process, which can adversely affect the completion of transit projects, GAO recommends that FTA, with DOL, periodically assess its application process and report the results to Congress.

GAO noted that: (1) FTA's data demonstrate that it processed less than half of the transit grant applications within its informal 90-day goal during the 21-month period from October 1998 through June 2000; (2) on average, the time that FTA spent in processing the approximately 1,800 applications during this period was 136 days; (3) furthermore, only 1 of FTA's 10 regional offices had an average processing time of less than 90 days; (4) FTA's headquarters officials told GAO that they have not analyzed why the agency's informal goal is often not met or why there are differences in regional processing times; (5) from January 1996 through April 2000, DOL provided a labor protection certification for 93 percent of the transit grant applications within 60 days of receipt from FTA; (6) for the 7 percent that took longer than 60 days, the most common factor contributing to processing delays was the submittal of an incomplete application; (7) of the 273 applications that took more than 60 days to process, 117 were suspended for this reason; (8) delays in processing grant applications also occur when an applicant or labor union objects to the labor protection terms and conditions proposed by DOL--105 of the 273 applications were delayed for this reason; (9) representatives of the transit community have suggested that APA should apply to the DOL certification process in order to improve the accessibility and consistency of DOL's decisions; (10) however, the transit community is concerned that some APA procedures could lengthen the grant approval process and further delay the release of grant funds; (11) to further the objectives of disclosure and consistency in its labor certification process, DOL could take actions without applying specific APA procedures that could lengthen the grant approval process; (12) when transit applications are not processed in a timely manner, transit benefits are delayed, and transportation needs are not met; (13) in addition, the lack of predictability and consistency in processing times can make planning and project execution difficult for applicants; (14) a periodic assessment of its grant application process, including DOL's certification of labor protection arrangements, would provide a basis for FTA to identify and address processing delays and problems; and (15) in addition, it would enable FTA to provide the transit community and others with information on the status of grant applications.

Recommendations

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

Recommendations for Executive Action