New Audit Announcements

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The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Airport Improvement Program (AIP) provides grants to public agencies—and, in some cases, to private owners and entities—to enhance safety and security, maintain infrastructure, increase capacity, and mitigate airport noise in surrounding communities. An AIP subcomponent called the State Block Grant Program (SBGP) provides funds directly to certain State aviation and airport agencies that assume some of FAA’s administrative responsibilities for the AIP. From fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2017, FAA provided $13.1 billion in AIP funds—more than $250 million annually on average—directly to States via SBGP. We initiated this audit because of the critical need to ensure that Federal AIP funds are spent appropriately and pending plans to expand the program from 10 to 20 States as authorized in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. Accordingly, our audit objectives will be to assess FAA’s oversight of (1) State project selection and (2) grantees and sub-grantees compliance with Federal laws and regulations on the use of funds.