Performance and Accountability: Challenges Facing the Department of Transportation

The Department of Transportation (DOT) faces critical challenges in achieving its goals of ensuring the safe and efficient movement of people and goods and in making cost-effective investments in the nation's transportation infrastructure. Many of the challenges GAO identified at DOT are long-standing and will require sustained attention by the new administration and Congress. Although the Department has efforts under way to address the shortcomings of its programs, these activities have not been fully implemented. Their success will depend on a strong commitment from DOT's new leadership and a sustained effort to identify and address critical human capital issues. Finally, as they address the problems facing each of the individual components, given the myriad of demands for new resources, the new administration and Congress must think and act to ensure that their transportation decisions reflect an intermodal transportation strategy that addresses the most pressing national needs in a cost-beneficial manner. This testimony summarizes a January GAO report (GAO-01-253).