Following three disastrous hurricanes in 2017, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) shared information and coordinated efforts. Despite this coordination, the agencies approved a small amount of funding for the same expenses, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
FTA allocated approximately $233 million in emergency relief funds to 52 transit agencies in Florida, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico to use for response, recovery, and rebuilding projects.
A total of $116 million of Puerto Rico’s $198 million in allocated funds was distributed to San Juan’s rail-transit service provider.
In April, FTA awarded a $35,000 grant to an applicant whom FEMA had already obligated funds in January. A breakdown in communication caused the duplication.
The agencies took steps to limit the potential for duplicate funding after the GAO identified the problem. The error was discovered while the GAO was completing a review of the federal government’s response and recovery efforts regarding the 2017 hurricanes.
The GOA recommends that the FTA administrator and the FEMA administrator identify and develop controls to address the risk of duplicate funding.
The Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security agreed with the recommendations and released steps to meet the recommendations.