Discretionary Transportation Grants: DOT Should Improve Transparency in the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America Program
Fast Facts
The Department of Transportation awarded $1.5 billion in grants to 26 significant freight and highway projects in the FY 2022 Infrastructure for Rebuilding America program (INFRA). DOT combined some phases of the INFRA grant award process with 2 of its other competitive grant programs.
DOT has taken steps to improve the transparency of the INFRA award process—such as writing a new memo to explain the Secretary's grant award decisions.
We found additional ways to improve transparency and ensure fairness in the INFRA grant award process. For example, we recommended clearly defining how applications are chosen to advance to the Secretary's review.
Characteristics of Projects Awarded INFRA Funding in the Latest Round, FY 2022
Highlights
What GAO Found
In September 2022, the Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded $1.5 billion in discretionary grants to fund nationally and regionally significant freight and highway projects through the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program. In fiscal year 2022, DOT combined some phases of the INFRA grant award process with those of two other discretionary grant programs. Specifically, DOT issued a single notice of funding opportunity to solicit applications. DOT also created a combined evaluation plan that outlined the criteria and process for evaluating applications for all three programs. Once applications were evaluated, award selections were made separately for each grant program.
Example of a Highway Construction Project
DOT has taken steps to improve its processes for evaluating and selecting INFRA applications for award. For example, DOT implemented and documented an evaluation process as required by guidance and created a new quality control process. DOT also created a new memo to better explain the Secretary's award decisions, which provides insight into why the applications chosen for award were selected over similarly situated applications.
However, DOT's evaluation and selection processes did not fully align with requirements set out in federal guidance. For example, DOT did not fully document eligibility determinations and reviewer conflict-of-interest screenings. Improving its documentation would help DOT ensure it is using accurate and complete information. Additionally, DOT did not clearly define the criteria used to advance applications to the Secretary for possible selection, specifically how projects could be deemed “exemplary.” Providing such information would help applicants understand how they will be evaluated and ensure reviewers advance applications using consistent criteria. These actions would also position DOT to more fully demonstrate that it is implementing the program with enhanced transparency and making fair grant award decisions.
Why GAO Did This Study
The INFRA program—a DOT discretionary grant program—funds nationally significant freight and highway projects. From 2016 through 2022, DOT awarded over $7 billion to fund such projects across the country.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes a provision for GAO to review DOT's process for evaluating and selecting INFRA projects for award. This report examines DOT's processes to solicit, evaluate, and select applications for INFRA grant awards in fiscal year 2022; and the extent to which DOT's evaluation and selection processes aligned with federal guidance. GAO reviewed DOT's notice of funding opportunity, evaluation plan, and documentation of the INFRA fiscal year 2022 evaluation process; analyzed application and award data; and interviewed DOT officials. GAO also reviewed the documentation of 50 applications, including the 26 applications that received an award.
Recommendations
GAO is making two recommendations to DOT, that it (1) establish quality control procedures to verify that the documentation of eligibility determinations and conflict-of-interest screenings is complete and (2) clearly define its “exemplary project” criteria for advancing applications for potential selection. DOT concurred with the first recommendation but did not concur with the second, stating that it had discretion to determine which projects are exemplary projects. GAO maintains the recommendation is valid as discussed in the report.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Transportation | The Secretary of Transportation should ensure that Office of the Secretary officials establish quality control procedures to verify that the conflict-of-interest screening and eligibility determination documentation is complete for Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant program applications. (Recommendation 1) |
From 2016 through 2022, the Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded over $7 billion in discretionary grants to fund nationally and regionally significant freight and highway projects through the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program. In fiscal year 2022, DOT combined some phases of the INFRA grant award process with that of two other discretionary grant programs and refers to the combined program as the Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant (MPDG) program. In January 2024, GAO reported that DOT generally followed the processes it described in its Notice of Funding Opportunity and evaluation plan when evaluating applications, but its quality control processes did not always ensure complete and accurate documentation. DOT also did not fully document eligibility determinations and conflict-of-interest screenings as part of the intake process. GAO reviewed the intake data for INFRA applications and found some instances of incomplete documentation. Specifically, the documentation for the eligibility determinations and conflict-of-interest screenings did not fully align with the requirements set out in federal guidance. DOT officials acknowledged that there were 11 applications with eligibility concerns for which a resolution was not documented. In addition, GAO identified that six of the 261 applications did not have a conflict-of-interest screening recorded in the documentation. According to DOT officials, due to limited time, they focused their efforts on ensuring accurate data for those projects that were ultimately selected and may not have gone back to address data or documentation issues for projects not advancing through the process. However, fully documenting eligibility and conflict-of-interest reviews would help DOT ensure it is implementing its policies as designed. As a result, GAO recommended that the Secretary of Transportation should ensure that Office of the Secretary officials establish quality control procedures to verify that the conflict-of-interest screening and eligibility determination documentation is complete for MPDG program applications. In September 2024, GAO confirmed that DOT revised its Evaluation Guidelines to ensure documentation is completed. The revised guidelines clarify the applications with an "unsure" eligibility designation for any given program will receive the same evaluation as an eligible application unless/until, upon further review, they are converted to an "ineligible" designation. The guidance directs the Evaluation Management and Oversight Team to review eligibility determinations and ensure all reviews are fully documented. The revised guidelines also clarify how the conflict of interest reviews are to be documented and provided to reviewers for verification and to confirm compliance with applicable requirements. By clarifying its guidance on documenting eligibility and conflict-of-interest reviews, DOT is better positioned to ensure it is implementing its policies as designed, which meets the intent of GAO's recommendation.
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| Department of Transportation | The Secretary of Transportation should clearly define, in the Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant program evaluation plan and Notice of Funding Opportunity, how an application may qualify as an "exemplary project of national or regional significance that generates significant benefits in one of the project outcome areas." (Recommendation 2) |
In January 2024, as part of its formal agency comments on GAO's report, DOT disagreed with this recommendation. In May 2024, DOT officials stated that the Department does not believe further clarification in the NOFO regarding how a project may be exemplary is necessary. They also noted that the application of the "exemplary" as well as the determination of whether projects are exemplary is at the discretion of the Department (and delegated advisors including the Senior Review Team members). However, we continue to believe that DOT should implement our recommendation for the reasons outlined in the report. Specifically, according to Office of Management and Budget guidance, the NOFO should clearly describe all criteria, including any sub-criteria. Clearly defining what constitutes "exemplary project" criteria would enhance the consistency and transparency of the program and provide better information to applicants. GAO will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.
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