New Audit Announcements

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Recognizing that Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) represent the fastest growing segment of the aviation industry and in response to an October 2017 Presidential Memorandum, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiated a 3-year UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP). Through the IPP, FAA partnered with private sector (e.g., UAS operators) and State, local, and tribal government entities to accelerate the safe integration of UAS and help develop new rules to enable more complex UAS operations. When FAA ended the IPP in October 2020, it launched a related follow-up program called BEYOND. Citing the importance of the IPP’s efforts, the Ranking Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its Subcommittee on Aviation requested that we assess FAA’s IPP, including next steps. Accordingly, our audit objectives will be to assess FAA’s (1) results of the IPP and (2) plans for using those results, including how the Agency will incorporate them into its new program BEYOND.