Concerns over rising operating costs at the Federal Aviation
Administration have led to scrutiny of its budgeting process
and led Senate and congressional appropriators to suggest
that improperly classified expenses be either reclassified
in other budget areas or not funded, the Government
Accountability Office has said in report, GAO-04-841R.
It said FAA’s policies for assigning budget expenditures to
the facilities and equipment, operations, and research,
engineering, and development accounts are outdated and
unclear, and linkages between FAA policies and budget line
item assignment to the accounts are very general.
The House and Senate appropriations subcommittee reports
on FAA’s fiscal year 2004 budget submission call attention
to 17 budget items classified as “facilities and equipment’
expenses that appear to be ongoing operating expenses, and
that appropriators recommended they be transferred to the
operations budget or not funded.
