	Introduction

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for developing,  administering, enforcing, and revising an effective, enforceable set of  aviation safety regulations that enhance aviation safety and security and  promote the efficient use of airspace. Studies specifically targeting the efficiency of FAA’s rulemaking process  over almost 40 years have also identified similar problems. to establish a 16-month time  limit for FAA’s finalization of rules after the close of the public comment  period and a 45-day requirement for OST’s review of FAA’s significant  proposed and final rules (see ch. As shown in figure 8, FAA formally initiated about 60  percent of mandated rulemaking actions and about one-third of NTSB’s  recommendations within 6 months. Time FAA Took to Complete Steps in the Rulemaking Process Varied

For significant rules published during the 6-year period from fiscal year  1995 through fiscal year 2000, FAA took a median time of about 2 ½ years to  proceed from the formal initiation of the rulemaking process to the  publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. Table 2 shows the members  and duties of FAA’s steering committee and management council. Rulemaking Reforms Did Not Reduce the Time Taken for Departmental Review and Approval of FAA’s Significant Rules

The time OST took to review and approve rules did not improve after FAA  reformed its rulemaking process in 1998. Too often, policy issues were not resolved in a timely  manner. However, since the process was reformed in January 1998 through  fiscal year 1999, we found that FAA had not documented any evaluations. Recommendations

To improve the efficiency of its rulemaking process and reap the maximum  benefits from its rulemaking reform efforts, we recommend that the  Secretary of Transportation direct the FAA Administrator to take steps to  improve management involvement in the rulemaking process by   reducing the number of top-priority projects to a manageable number  over time by limiting the number of projects added until existing  projects are completed and establishing criteria for ranking the highest  priority rules so that the lowest ranked of these priority rules may be  tabled if necessary to allow sufficient resources to be applied to  emerging, higher-priority projects;  providing resources sufficient for rulemaking teams to meet the  agency's suggested time frames.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues regulations to strengthen aviation safety and security and to promote the efficient use of airspace. FAA's rulemaking is a complicated process intended to ensure that all aspects of any regulatory change are fully analyzed before any change goes into effect. During the last 40 years, many reports have documented problems in FAA's rulemaking efforts that have delayed the formulation and finalization of its rules. This report reviews FAA's rulemaking process. GAO reviewed 76 significant rules and found that FAA's rulemaking process varied widely. These rules constituted the majority of FAA's workload of significant rules from fiscal year 1995 through fiscal year 2000.

What GAO Found

GAO found that FAA had begun about 60 percent of the rulemaking projects by Congress and about a third of the rulemaking projects recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board within six months. For one-fourth of the mandates and one-third of the recommendations however, at least five years passed before FAA began the process. Once the rule was formally initiated, FAA took a median time of two and a half years to proceed from formal initiation of the rulemaking process through publication of the final rule. In 1998, FAA improved the rulemaking process and shortened the time frames for finalizing rules. These reforms included establishing a steering committee and a rulemaking management council to improve management involvement in setting priorities and resolving policy issues. GAO found that after the reforms were implemented, the median time for reviewing and finalizing a rule increased. This suggests that the productivity of FAA's rulemaking process for significant rules decreased after FAA's reforms.