CAGTC Members,
Today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the FAST Act-required assessment of the 2016 FASTLANE (Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program – now INFRA) selection process. The report, titled “Discretionary Transportation Grants: DOT Should Take Actions to Improve the Selection of Freight and Highway Projects,” was sent to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. You can find the report online here.
The top takeaway from this report: GAO recommends increased transparency in the selection process going forward. The executive summary lays out a brief synopsis of GAO’s critiques of USDOT’s selection process during the FY16 FASTLANE program. Per the document, GAO found that:
- USDOT documentation of the decision making process at critical stages was limited, resulting in poor selection transparency.
- Notes from meetings provided insufficient insight into decisions made and, ultimately, limited the transparency around the Secretary’s final selection decisions.
- Many of the Senior Review Team members were no longer at USDOT, making it difficult to glean insight into how decisions were ultimately made.
- USDOT generally followed the application review process outlined in the evaluation plan. However, the plan provided a great amount of flexibility, resulting in scoring variances and giving review teams broad discretion in the application review process.
- There was a lack of consistency in applying the selection criteria among the different modal agencies, with FHWA, MARAD, and FRA each creating their own evaluation processes.
- This could have contributed to inconsistencies in assigning ratings and in how applications were reviewed.
- The Senior Review Team provided the Secretary with 130 projects, from which the 18 projects were selected to receive funding.
- Project selections seemed to favor strong narratives over project ratings.
- There was a lack of documentation of specific insights as to why the Secretary selected the 18 specific projects.
- USDOT officials said the large list was to ensure the Secretary had enough options to meet the statutory requirements.
- Originally, FHWA officials said applications should specifically mention freight benefits to receive a “recommended rating.” However, the Quality Control and Oversight Team redefined the definitions, making it so projects had to “strongly meet” one of the six selection criteria or meet multiple criteria to a lesser degree.
- USDOT reached out to some applicants to request additional information or modified project proposals, resulting in the Senior Review Team adding an additional 33 projects to the proposed list. It is unclear if any other projects would have been able to meet the statutory requirements had they also been contacted.
- USDOT officials did not properly notify many of the applicants of the results of their applications.
Given these findings, GAO made three recommendations to USDOT:
- The Secretary of Transportation should develop an evaluation plan for the 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.
- 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.
- The Secretary of Transportation should require INFRA program teams document their decision-making rationale throughout all levels of review in the application selection process.
GAO provided this report to USDOT and in an October 5 written response, USDOT notes “Upon review of the GAO draft report, we concur with the recommendations.”
Thank you,
Katie Cross
Manager, Member Communications & Policy
Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors
1444 Eye St N.W.
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 828-9100
tradecorridors.org