The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published a report highlighting 16 open recommendations for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Priority open recommendations warrant special attention from heads of key departments or agencies. These recommendations address a variety of issues including ways to eliminate mismanagement, fraud or abuse; ensuring programs comply with laws and funds are legally spent; improving congressional and/or executive branch decision making on major issues.
The recommendations for the Department of Transportation involve funding surface transportation, improving transportation readiness, cybersecurity risks, addressing safety risks, improving federal grant management and enhancing management of information technology workforce planning.
The GAO also released its 2019 High Risk List. The programs and operations need to be revised or will continue to be vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.
Funding the surface transportation system was the only infrastructure and transportation issue on the list.
“Continuing to augment the Highway Trust Fund with general revenues may not be sustainable, given competing demands and the federal government’s long-term fiscal challenges,” the GAO said. “A sustainable solution would balance revenues to and spending from the Highway Trust Fund.”
An estimated $159 billion in additional funding will be needed to maintain current spending levels plus inflation from 2022 to 2029, according to the Congressional Budget Office.