United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-10-22 monographic deposited born digital 34 p. GA 1.13:RCED-00-1 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-1 P0b002ee180383c74 f:rc00001 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-1 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-1 RCED-00-1 Transportation operations Cost control Federal aid for transportation Intergovernmental relations Mass transit operations Interagency relations Strategic planning Public assistance programs Redundancy Medicaid Program HHS Community Transportation Assistance Project FTA Rural Technical Assistance Program Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on federal agencies that provide nonemergency human services transportation, focusing on: (1) the benefits and incentives to human services transportation coordination; (2) the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) and the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) efforts to identify barriers to transportation coordination; and (3) HHS' and FTA's efforts to enhance transportation coordination through state and local transportation planning.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) transportation coordination can reduce federal transportation program costs by clustering passengers, utilizing fewer one-way trips, and sharing the use of transportation personnel, equipment, and facilities; (2) in addition, people in need of transportation often benefit from the greater and higher quality transportation services available when transportation providers coordinate their operations; (3) the most concerted effort by HHS and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to identify barriers occurred in 1988; (4) at that time, acting through a Coordinating Council established in 1986, the agencies identified 64 factors that transportation and human services representatives believed were barriers to transportation coordination; (5) for each barrier, the Council offered a federal response that, in some cases, simply attempted to clarify misunderstandings about program requirements; (6) other responses, however, did not resolve the barrier because the issues required legislation, needed additional study, or were outside of the control of the Departments; (7) the Coordinating Council held transportation meetings with most states in 1995 and 1996, but when barriers were addressed in these meetings, the comments were often limited to a word or phrase; (8) this level of generality made a federal response difficult, and none was undertaken; (9) since 1996, HHS and DOT have been directed by congressional committees to advance state and local transportation coordination through joint planning guidelines that would address issues such as the expanded use of public transportation; (10) in response, HHS and DOT, through the Coordinating Council, began developing planning guidelines in the spring of 1997; (11) while some progress has been made, the joint planning guidelines are still under development; (12) the Departments recognize that progress on the guidelines has been slow and have assigned a contractor to work with agency officials so the guidelines could be issued by the end of 1999; (13) the agencies have also concluded that as an entity, the Coordinating Council needs to be strengthened; (14) the two departments are working on a draft strategic plan for the Council that not only lists goals and objectives, but specific tasks intended to make the goals and objectives a reality; and (15) however, this strategic plan has been in draft for several years, and it is unclear if and when any of the plan's proposed tasks will be undertaken. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-1/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-1.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-1/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-1.pdf GAO/RCED-00-1 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-1 Letter Report GAO/RCED-00-1; Transportation Coordination: Benefits and Barriers Exist,; Transportation operations Cost control Federal aid for transportation Intergovernmental relations Mass transit operations Interagency relations Strategic planning Public assistance programs Redundancy Medicaid Program HHS Community Transportation Assistance Project FTA Rural Technical Assistance Program Public Law 105-178