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Summary

We issued an audit report on DOT’s progress in managing its rulemaking process and meeting its deadlines. The audit follows up on our March 2004 report, requested by Representative James L. Oberstar, ranking Democratic member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. We found that DOT continues to make progress in issuing its rules, especially old and congressionally mandated rules. The overriding reason for DOT’s progress has been the priority given to rulemaking by the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Chief of Staff, and General Counsel. This follow-up report covers DOT’s overall progress in issuing significant rulemaking actions and is a snapshot of DOT’s rulemaking performance during the 1-year period from July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004

Since DOT has just recently implemented recommendations included in our March 2004 report, it is too early to see the overall results of changes DOT has made to improve the methods by which it manages and oversees the rulemaking process. Therefore, we did not make any recommendations in this report. However, DOT must continue its focused attention on the rulemaking process in addition to continuing the highest level of management oversight.