	Background

Located in FAA’s Office of Aviation Safety (Aviation Safety), the Aircraft  Certification Service (Aircraft Certification) and Flight Standards Service  (Flight Standards) issue certificates and approvals for new aviation  products to be used in the national airspace system as well as for new  operators in the system, such as air carriers, based on federal aviation  regulations (see fig. Attempts have been made to provide FAA with additional funding from  industry stakeholders for processing certifications and approvals. Most FAA Initiatives to Improve Its Aircraft Certification and Approval Process Are on Track

In May 2012, the Certification Process Committee made six  recommendations to Aircraft Certification to streamline and reengineer  the product certification and approval processes, improve efficiency and  effectiveness within Aircraft Certification, and redirect resources for  support of certification. In August 2012, FAA  reported its plan to Congress for addressing the Certification Process  Committee’s recommendations, and, in July 2013, the agency issued an  implementation plan with 14 initiatives. Most Initiatives Are on Track for Meeting Planned Completion Milestones

Since the January update, Aircraft Certification has continued its efforts to  address the recommendations to improve its certification and approval  processes and is implementing the 14 initiatives. These initiatives touch  on various aspects of Aircraft Certification’s work and, according to FAA  several predate the committee’s recommendations and were part of on- going continuous efforts to address long-standing certification issues and  to improve the certification process. The initiatives range from developing  a comprehensive road map for major change initiatives, to improving the  project sequencing process, to reorganizing the small aircraft certification  regulation. Some Initiatives Will Not Meet or Are at Risk of Not Meeting Planned Milestones

Although most initiatives are on track, according to FAA’s May 2014  interim update, 2 of the 14 initiatives will not meet planned milestones:  Improve effectiveness of the ODA program: FAA and two aviation  industry groups—the Aerospace Industries Association and General  Aviation Manufacturers Association—developed a plan to improve  the effectiveness of the ODA process, which is used to authorize  organizations to act on behalf of FAA in conducting some safety  certification work. According to FAA’s May 2014 update, 1 of the 14 initiatives was at risk of  not meeting planned milestones, which increases the risk that FAA will  miss its established implementation time frames for the initiative for  addressing its associated recommendation. However, Aircraft Certification is relying on Flight  Standards to complete the implementation plan for addressing the  recommendations. For the third phase, working with the Aerospace  Industries Association, FAA plans to develop metrics for measuring the  global return on investment in implementing all of the initiatives, to the  extent that such measurement is possible. FAA Has Made Some Progress in Addressing Recommendations to Improve the Consistency of Its Regulatory Interpretations, but Details Are Unclear

Unlike FAA’s efforts to improve the certification process, although FAA  has made some progress towards addressing the regulatory consistency  recommendations, the details remain unclear about how FAA will  structure its efforts. In July  2013, FAA reported to Congress on its plans for addressing the  regulatory consistency recommendations, and included its preliminary  plan for determining the feasibility of implementing these  recommendations. A Master Source Guidance System

The Regulatory Consistency Committee recommended that Aircraft  Certification and Flight Standards (1) review all guidance documents and  interpretations to identify and cancel outdated material and electronically  link the remaining materials to its applicable rule, and (2) to consolidate  Aircraft Certification’s and Flight Standards’ electronic guidance libraries  into a master source guidance system, organized by rule, to allow FAA  and industry users access to relevant rules and all active and superseded  guidance material and related documents. FAA officials also discussed the agency’s conceptual  approach and plans for establishing a board—likely by the end of  calendar year 2014—to address these two recommendations. In this final section of this  testimony, we discuss challenges for FAA in implementing the  committees’ certification and approval and regulatory consistency  recommendations that relate to these key practices. Commitment to Cultural Change

FAA and industry representatives also cited FAA’s organizational culture  as a primary challenge for FAA in successfully implementing these  initiatives. As we have previously found, the implementation of  recommendations that require a cultural shift for employees can be  delayed if the workforce is reluctant in accepting such change. Setting Performance Measures

FAA has not fully developed performance metrics to ensure that any  initiatives it implements are achieving their intended outcomes. We have  previously found that agencies that have been successful in assessing  performance use measures that demonstrate results and provide useful  information for decision making.that FAA had not completed developing performance measures for either  the certification improvement or the regulatory consistency initiatives:   Earlier in this testimony, we reported
FAA had developed performance measures for 5 of the 14  certification process initiatives as of May 2014 and plans to further  develop measures in three phases. Going forward, it is critically important that FAA develop outcome-based  performance measures to determine what is actually being achieved  through the current and future initiatives, thereby making it easier to  determine the overall outcomes of each of the initiatives and to hold  FAA’s field and headquarters offices and employees accountable for the  results.
Why GAO Did This Study

Among its responsibilities for aviation safety, FAA issues certificates for new aircraft and parts, and grants approvals for changes to air operations and aircraft, based on federal aviation regulations. Various studies, GAO's prior work, and industry stakeholders have raised questions about the efficiency of FAA's certification and approval processes, as well as the consistency of its staff in interpreting aviation regulations. Over time, FAA has implemented efforts to address these issues, but they persist as FAA faces greater industry demand and its overall workload has increased. The 2012 FAA Modernization and Reform Act required FAA to work with industry to resolve these issues. In response, FAA chartered two committees—one to address certification and approval processes and another to address regulatory consistency—which recommended improvements in 2012. In 2013, FAA published an implementation plan for addressing the certification and approval process recommendations and promised to publish an implementation plan for addressing the regulatory consistency recommendations at a later date.
This testimony provides information on FAA's progress in implementing the (1) certification and approval process recommendations and (2) regulatory consistency recommendations. It also discusses future challenges industry stakeholders believe FAA will face in implementing these recommendations. This testimony is based on GAO products issued from 2010 to 2014, updated in July 2014 through reviews of recent FAA and industry documents and interviews of FAA officials and industry representatives.

What GAO Found

The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Aircraft Certification Service (Aircraft Certification) is responsible for addressing the certification and approval process recommendations, and has made progress. Aircraft Certification is implementing and has set milestones for completing 14 initiatives, several of which were originally begun as part of earlier certification process improvement efforts. The initiatives range from developing a comprehensive road map for major change initiatives, to improving Aircraft Certification's process for prioritizing requests for certifications and approvals (project sequencing), to reorganizing the small aircraft certification regulation. According to an update prepared by FAA in May 2014, one initiative has been completed and most are on track to be completed within 3 years. However, according to this update, two initiatives will not meet planned milestones, including the one for improving FAA's program for delegating authority to organizations to carry out some certification activities. Also, a third initiative for improving consistency of regulatory interpretation was at risk of not meeting planned milestones. Two additional initiatives, while on track for meeting planned milestones in May 2014, faced challenges because of opposition by FAA's labor unions, including one for improving Aircraft Certification's project sequencing process. GAO found in October 2013 that Aircraft Certification continued to lack performance measures for many of these initiatives, a condition that persists. In 2010, GAO had previously recommended that FAA develop a continuous evaluative process with performance goals and measures. FAA agreed but has not yet fully addressed the recommendation. Aircraft Certification officials discussed plans to develop metrics in three phases, beginning in July 2014 and in the future, for measuring (1) the progress of implementing the initiatives throughout FAA, (2) the outcomes of each initiative, and (3) the return on investment for FAA and the industry resulting from implementing the initiatives as a whole.
FAA's Flight Standards Service (Flight Standards) is responsible for addressing the regulatory consistency recommendations, is finalizing plans to do so. FAA has not published a detailed plan with milestones and performance metrics, and officials told GAO that they intend to publish a plan by August 2014. Flight Standards officials said they were making progress in addressing the committee's top priority recommendation—mapping all FAA policy and guidance to relevant federal aviation regulations and developing an electronic system that maintains this information and that is accessible by FAA and industry users. As part of this effort, officials told GAO that Flight Standards has begun eliminating obsolete guidance and linking existing policy and guidance to the regulations.
Going forward, Aircraft Certification's and Flight Standards' efforts may face challenges that could affect successful implementation of the committees' recommendations. Many of these recommendations represent a significant shift in how FAA normally conducts business, and if the workforce is reluctant to implement such changes, FAA's planned initiatives for addressing the recommendations could be delayed. Also, the fact that FAA has not yet implemented performance measures for most of the initiatives is a concern for both GAO and the industry. As GAO concluded in October 2013, without performance measures, FAA will be unable to gather the appropriate data to evaluate the success of current and future initiatives.