United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-12-07 monographic deposited born digital 30 p. GA 1.13:GAO-02-213 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-213 P0b002ee18038e5c8 f:d02213 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-213 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-213 GAO-02-213 Employment Ground transportation operations Welfare recipients Grant award procedures Grant monitoring DOL Job Access and Reverse Commute Program Other Written Product A02542 Without adequate transportation, welfare recipients face significant barriers in moving from welfare to working. In 1998, three-fourths of welfare recipients lived in central cities or rural areas, but two-thirds of new, entry-level jobs were located in the suburbs. Public transportation facilities, such as buses or subways, often offer limited or no access to many of these jobs. Although the jobs can be reached by car, many welfare recipients do not have cars. To address this mismatch, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) authorized up to $750 million for fiscal years 1999 through 2003 for the Job Access and Reverse Commute (Job Access) program. The program authorizes the Department of Transportation (DOT) to provide grants to improve transportation to employment sites. TEA-21 requires DOT to conduct a nationwide solicitation for Job Access grant applications and to select grantees on a competitive basis. In response to language in the conference reports accompanying DOT's fiscal year 2000 and 2001 appropriations acts that designated significant Job Access funds for specific states, localities, and organizations, DOT adopted a two-track process for the selection of Job Access grantees. A noncompetitive process set aside funds for entities identified in the conference reports, or applicants selected by those entities, and they were selected without scoring or ranking their applications. The previously established competitive process for other applicants was continued. This two-track process for selecting Job Access grantees decreased opportunities to fund projects identified as "meritorious" through the competitive selection process. Although TEA-21 requires that Job Access grantees be selected on a competitive basis, the allocation of Job Access funds on a noncompetitive basis to entities designated in conference reports, or applicants selected by those entities, was not consistent. Furthermore, the conference reports did not impose legally binding requirements and did not provide a legal basis to deviate from the act's requirements. Therefore, the use of a noncompetitive process for the selection of Job Access grantees in fiscal years 2000 and 2001 was not authorized. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-213/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-213.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-213/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-213.pdf GAO-02-213 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-213 Other Written Product GAO-02-213; Welfare Reform: Competitive Grant Selection Requirement for DOT's Job Access Program Was Not Followed; Employment Ground transportation operations Welfare recipients Grant award procedures Grant monitoring DOL Job Access and Reverse Commute Program Volume 113 Page 986 113 Stat. 986 Volume 114 Page 1356 114 Stat. 1356 Public Law 106-69 Public Law 106-346