View PDF Document

Summary

On September 17, 2013, we issued a letter to Chairmen Shuster and LoBiondo and Ranking Member Larsen of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its Subcommittee on Aviation regarding the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) progress in meeting Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) provisions in Title II of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. The Committee requested that we review FAA’s progress on the act  after a September 2012 hearing highlighted significant cost overruns and program delays with key NextGen initiatives and modernization projects. We found that FAA has implemented or is on target to implement 11 of the 24 NextGen-related provisions we identified. However, several of the provisions that have yet to be implemented are key to achieving the full benefits of NextGen. Underscoring FAA’s difficulties in meeting the provisions of the act are longstanding programmatic and organizational challenges, including the technical complexity of NextGen initiatives; the collaboration required with other Government and aviation stakeholders to complete the initiatives; and financial concerns, including meeting the provisions of the Budget Control Act of 2011. We plan to issue a full report on our findings later this year.