Welfare Reform: Implementing DOT's Access to Jobs Program in Its First Year Page: 3 of 20
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United States
General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20548
Resources, Community, and
Economic Development Division
B-283299
November 26, 1999
The Honorable Phil Gramm
Chairman
The Honorable Paul S. Sarbanes
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
United States Senate
The Honorable Bud Shuster
Chairman
The Honorable James L. Oberstar
Ranking Democratic Member
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
House of Representatives
To transition welfare recipients to employment, it is important to provide
them with transportation to the workplace. Three-fourths of welfare
recipients live in central cities or rural areas, while two-thirds of the new
jobs are located in the suburbs. Many of these new jobs are in areas with
limited or no public transportation systems and are accessible primarily by
car.1 However, many welfare recipients do not have cars. To address this
mismatch, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century
(TEA-21) authorized the Access to Jobs and Reverse Commute (Job Access)
program. The program authorizes the Department of Transportation (DOT)
to provide grants to local agencies, nonprofit organizations, and transit
authorities, among others, to improve transportation to employment.
Within DOT, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is responsible for
implementing the program. TEA-21 authorized up to $750 million for fiscal
years 1999 through 2003 to implement the program.
TEA-21 requires us to review the Job Access program every 6 months. This
report describes (1) DOT's implementation of the Job Access program,
particularly its approach for selecting awards in fiscal year 1999; (2) the
fiscal year 1999 grantees and their planned approaches for providing
transportation services to low-income workers; and (3) the changes DOT is
making to the program in response to our prior recommendations,
including the establishment of specific objectives, performance criteria,
and measurable goals for evaluating the program's success.
1The need for transportation services to move people from welfare to work is discussed in Welfare
Reform: Transportation's Role in Moving From Welfare to Work (GAO/RCED-98-161, May 29, 1998).GAO/RCED-00-14 Welfare Reform
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United States. General Accounting Office. Welfare Reform: Implementing DOT's Access to Jobs Program in Its First Year, report, November 26, 1999; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc290420/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.