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. 1 below). FAA inspectors and engineers interpret and implement these regulations governing certificates and approvals through FAA policies and guidance, including orders, notices, and advisory circulars. Additionally, FAA also has the authority to use private individuals and organizational entities, known as designees, to carry out many certification activities on behalf of the FAA Administrator in order to enable FAA to better concentrate its limited staff resources on safety- critical functions. In Aircraft Certification, approximately 880 engineers and inspectors issue certifications and approvals to the designers and manufacturers of new aircraft and aircraft engines, propellers, parts, and equipment, including the avionics and other equipment required for modernizing the air traffic control system under the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Since 2005, Aircraft Certification has used a project sequencing system to nationally prioritize certification submissions on the basis of available resources. In fiscal year 2013, Aircraft Certification issued 3,496 design approvals, 57 production approvals, and 536 airworthiness certificates. In Flight Standards, approximately 4,000 inspectors issue certificates and approvals allowing individuals and entities to operate in the national airspace system. These include certificates to commercial air carriers, operators of smaller commercial aircraft, repair stations, and flight training schools and training centers. Flight Standards field office managers in over 100 field offices initiate certification projects within their offices on a first-come, first served basis. In fiscal year 2013, Flight Standards issued 259 air operator certificates and 159 air agency certificates. When FAA receives aviation industry submissions for certificates and approvals, it must determine whether or not resources are available to begin the project. According to FAA, the agency considers its highest priority to be overseeing the continued operational safety of the people and products already operating within the national airspace system. The same staff that provide this oversight are also tasked with other oversight activities, such as processing new certifications and approvals that FAA considers to be lower priority. FAA wait-lists new certification and approval projects when resources are not available to begin the work. Flight Standards, in particular, has historically had difficulty keeping up with its certification workload across its regions and offices, a problem that persists. FAA has considered ways to supplement its annual budget by expanding its sources of funding to deal with its increasing workload and staff shortages. However, FAA has limited options as it cannot levy fees on its customers for most of the services it provides to industry, including aviation product certifications and approvals. Attempts have been made to provide FAA with additional funding from industry stakeholders for processing certifications and approvals. In 2007, the administration submitted a reauthorization proposal to Congress that called for major changes to FAA's funding and budget structure. These changes were intended to provide a more stable, reliable basis for funding in the long term, in part by allowing FAA to impose fees on manufacturers for the various activities and costs related to aircraft certification and approval. Congress has previously authorized other agencies to charge these types of "user fees" for services rendered for processing product certification and approval. For example, the Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act of 2002 authorized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to charge and retain a fee for providing services related to reviewing medical device products. However, this broad authority has not been granted to FAA. 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. The Certification Process Committee further recommended that FAA develop measures of effectiveness for its activities and a means of tracking its progress. 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. FAA updated this plan in January 2014 and plans to issue further updates on the status of the initiatives periodically. 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. Figure 2, based on an interim May 2014 update that FAA provided to us, summarizes FAA's determination of the status of the 14 initiatives. According to the May 2014 update that FAA provided to us, 1 of the 14 initiatives has been completed, and 10 initiatives are on track for completion within planned time frames. FAA deployed a tracking system to monitor the implementation of the initiatives in June 2013, but the agency indicated it is still finalizing the mechanisms for authorizing staff with the appropriate level of review and approval rights in the system. Also, ten of the initiatives were on track for meeting their planned completion milestones. For example, the initiatives to expand the authority for approving aircraft emissions data and noise compliance under the organization designation authorization (ODA) program are on track to be completed in 2015. In addition, the initiative to expedite rulemaking by, among other things, adopting a rulemaking prioritization tool to update airworthiness standards for special conditions is scheduled to be completed in September of this year. Further, three of the initiatives were in danger of getting off track between 2011 and 2013 and are now back on schedule. 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. In conjunction with the plan, FAA revised the order that outlines the new ODA procedures. However, this initiative was purposely delayed to provide industry with additional time to adapt to the changes in the ODA procedures. Representatives of three industry associations we interviewed for this testimony supported the use and expansion of ODA by FAA. In contrast, while the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) agrees with the concept of ODA, it has concerns related to expanding the program because representatives contend that oversight of the program requires significant FAA resources. PASS also contends that due to current staffing shortages and increased workload, FAA does not have enough inspectors and engineers to provide the proper surveillance of the designees who would be granted this additional delegation authority. On May 14, 2014, the DOT OIG announced a review of FAA's oversight of the ODA program. The OIG plans to assess FAA's (1) process for determining staffing levels for ODA oversight and (2) oversight of delegated organizations' program controls. Update 14 C.F.R. Part 21: FAA chartered another aviation rulemaking committee in October 2012 to evaluate improvements to the effectiveness and efficiency of certification procedures for aircraft products and parts, along with incorporating new safety management system (SMS) concepts into the design and manufacturing environment. The committee submitted its report to FAA in July 2014. FAA indicated that the government shutdown in October 2013 delayed some of the actions that the agency had planned to move this effort into the rulemaking process, including submission of the application for rulemaking. According to FAA, however, this delay will have no effect on completion of the final rule, which is planned for 2017. 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. Improve consistency of regulatory interpretations: The May 2014 interim update also indicated that the initiative for improving the consistency of regulatory interpretation is at risk of getting off track or off schedule. This initiative responds to the Regulatory Consistency Committee's recommendations for improving the consistency of regulatory interpretation within both Aircraft Certification and Flight Standards. However, Aircraft Certification is relying on Flight Standards to complete the implementation plan for addressing the recommendations. Therefore, Aircraft Certification has placed this initiative on hold. (The next section of this statement discusses in more detail FAA's response to the Regulatory Consistency Committee's recommendations.) As of May 2014, FAA had not developed metrics for measuring the effectiveness of 9 of the 14 initiatives it has undertaken, nor has it determined metrics to measure the effectiveness of its actions as a whole. According to FAA officials, they plan to develop these metrics in three phases. For the first phase, to be included in the July 2014 update of its implementation plan, FAA will include metrics to measure the progress of the implementation of the initiatives. For the second phase, FAA plans to subsequently develop metrics for measuring the outcomes of each initiative. 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. We believe that this plan for establishing performance measures is reasonable. 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 November 2012, the Regulatory Consistency Committee made six recommendations to Aircraft Certification and Flight Standards to improve (1) the consistency in how regulations are applied and (2) communications between FAA and industry stakeholders. 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. The report also indicated that FAA would develop a detailed implementation plan that would include an implementation strategy, assign responsibilities to offices and staff, establish milestones, and measure effectiveness for tracking purposes. We found in February 2014 that FAA expected to publish such a detailed implementation plan by late June 2014, more than 6 months after its initial target date of December 2013. In June 2014, FAA officials told us that the implementation plan was under review within FAA and estimated that the agency would issue its detailed plan in August 2014. Until this detailed plan is released, the specific initiatives for addressing the recommendations are unknown; thus, we cannot analyze information on the status of any planned efforts similar to the information we provided above for the certification process initiatives. Further, FAA's July 2013 preliminary plan does not specify how FAA plans to measure the effectiveness of the initiatives. FAA indicated that "although there may not be any baseline for each recommendation against which to compare improvements, FAA intends to consider: (1) identifying metrics, (2) gathering and developing baseline data, and (3) periodically measuring any changes, positive or negative, in rates of completion." FAA officials provided the following information on how the agency is planning to respond to the six recommendations. 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. This recommendation for creating the master source guidance system is the top priority of the Regulatory Consistency Committee. FAA officials indicated that establishing this system will require two main components: As a first step, for linking (mapping) all relevant guidance materials to the regulations, FAA plans to determine which "guidance" documents exist across regional and field offices--including orders, notices, and advisory circulars--outside FAA's electronic guidance libraries, which are being used to answer questions, interpret or analyze regulations, and provide guidance on regulatory matters. In December 2013, Flight Standards sent out a memorandum requesting that staff discontinue using any guidance documents outside those found in the guidance libraries, to be effective January 15, 2014. The memorandum also asked for the staff to submit any unofficial guidance worth preserving to FAA for review. Flight Standards then conducted a review to determine which of the unofficial guidance documents submitted should be added to the guidance libraries. Several members of the Regulatory Consistency Committee responded in an e-mail to FAA to express serious concerns about this approach and stated that the committee did not envision the cancellation of any guidance before FAA developed a methodology to include or exclude such guidance. The committee members further noted that FAA's memorandum provided no method to allow existing certificate holders to retain certifications that were based on any applied guidance that had been cancelled. Further, these members requested that FAA either withdraw the memorandum or address the issues they raised and extend the date for FAA staff to comply with the memorandum. However, two other Regulatory Consistency Committee members we interviewed considered FAA's actions to get staff to discontinue the use of unofficial guidance in the field to be an appropriate first step. Second, FAA plans to develop a master source guidance system with the capability to consolidate information from Aircraft Certification's and Flight Standards' electronic guidance libraries as well as legal interpretations from the Office of Chief Counsel into a master guidance system to allow FAA and industry users access. Specifically, the Regulatory Consistency Committee recommended that this system be searchable so that FAA and industry users can easily access relevant rules and find the relevant guidance for the rule. FAA officials assessed the possibility of using the existing Aviation Safety Information Management System, but determined that it is not adequate because (1) users cannot search for guidance by word and (2) it is not compatible with other FAA data systems. According to FAA officials, with about $750,000 in approved funding for this project, FAA's information technology division is in the process of developing a dynamic regulatory system that should provide the needed capabilities. Officials indicated that when users conduct a search for a particular topic in this system, the search results should bring up multiple entries for specific guidance. Initially, Flight Standards plans to use an Excel spreadsheet for storing the guidance and then transition to the new system once it is deployed. Flight Standards hopes to test out a first version of this system within calendar year 2014. However, the officials were unsure of the total cost of developing and deploying the system. Representatives from four of the committee stakeholders we interviewed for this testimony acknowledged that creating this system is a major effort for FAA because of the volume of FAA guidance that potentially exists across regional and field offices, some of which may not be in Aircraft Certification's and Flight Standards' electronic guidance libraries. Representatives of five industry stakeholders we interviewed provided insights on how FAA might devise a plan for creating and populating this system. Three of these noted that FAA will need to ensure that the various types of guidance--such as orders, notices, and advisory circulars--include links to the original federal aviation regulations. One of these stakeholders recommended that FAA develop the system to allow a user looking at FAA guidance to also see all relevant background information on related decisions, and the past actions related to the guidance in question and their relation to the original regulation. Because of the large volume of FAA guidance, some stakeholders also suggested that FAA begin by first choosing a starting date for which any new rules or other new guidance it issues would include links to the relevant original regulations. However, one stakeholder we interviewed noted that FAA should consider prioritizing its effort by first mapping the guidance materials for specific key regulations and then the guidance for less significant regulations. The Regulatory Consistency Committee noted multiple instances where FAA guidance appeared to have created inconsistent interpretation and application, and confusion; the Consistency Committee recommended that FAA develop a standardized decision-making methodology for the development of all policy and guidance material to ensure such documents are consistent with adopted regulations. In interviews for this testimony, FAA officials also provided some updates on how the agency will respond to the recommendation to develop instructional tools for its policy staff. FAA officials told us they had not initiated any efforts yet to address this recommendation, but would begin by focusing on developing instructions for policy staff to use for populating the master source guidance system. In August 2014, FAA plans to form an internal work group to establish a document management framework and work processes that can be used by Aircraft Certification's and Flight Standards' policy division staffs as they map existing guidance documents to applicable source regulations in the master source guidance system. The officials expected the work group would issue an internal directive for FAA personnel on work processes to be used in populating the guidance system by June of 2015. The Regulatory Consistency Committee recommended that FAA, in consultation with industry stakeholders, review and revise its regulatory training for applicable agency personnel and make the curriculum available to industry. FAA officials told us that FAA has begun to develop improved training for its field staff--the third recommendation of the Regulatory Consistency Committee--so that field inspector staffs are better equipped to answer routine compliance-related questions confidently and in a consistent manner. In addition, the officials told us starting in 2015, FAA plans to conduct a gap analysis of existing training for all FAA staff who are responsible for interpreting and applying certification and approval regulations. For this analysis, FAA plans to assess whether existing training can be modified to sufficiently address any gaps. FAA also plans to coordinate with industry to share the results of this review and analysis by the end of 2015. The Regulatory Consistency Committee made two similar recommendations for FAA to consider: (1) establish a Regulatory Consistency Communications Board comprising various FAA representatives that would provide clarification on questions from FAA and industry stakeholders related to the application of regulations and (2) determine the feasibility of establishing a full-time Regulatory Operations Communication Center as a centralized support center to provide real- time guidance to FAA personnel and industry certificate/approval holders and applicants. 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. The purpose of the board would be to provide a neutral and centralized mechanism with a standardized process for addressing and resolving regulatory compliance issues between FAA and industry. According to the committee, this board would be comprised of representatives from the relevant headquarters policy divisions in FAA to help answer complex regulatory interpretation issues that arise between FAA inspectors and engineers, and industry during the certification and approval processes. FAA officials told us the board's process, once established, would use a modified version of the agency's current Consistency and Standardization Initiative (CSI), a process established as a means for industry to appeal FAA decisions and actions. As we found in 2010, resolution through the CSI can be a lengthy process, with the total length of the process depending on how many levels of appeal the industry stakeholder chooses. However, as we also found, industry stakeholders have generally been reluctant to use CSI for initiating appeals and raising concerns with the local field office for fear of retribution. FAA officials told us in interviews that the modified process would help address the retribution issue, because it would rely instead on multiple sources to raise issues--not just solely on industry--and would be the final arbiter for FAA and industry in disagreements on certification and approval decisions. According to FAA officials, the board could also serve the function of the proposed operations center recommended by the committee to be a resource for assisting FAA personnel and industry stakeholders with interpretation queries and establishing consistency in regulatory application. FAA officials indicated that the agency had decided not to establish the communications center because (1) the board could serve a similar function and (2) FAA has limited resources available to staff a communications center. Several industry stakeholders we spoke with told us they support FAA's preliminary plans to establish the board and modify the CSI process as part of this effort. For example, several stakeholders told us that they support FAA's plans to modify the current CSI process. One of these stakeholders noted that a modified process would be more effective if it allowed for industry stakeholders to raise issues anonymously. Also, another stakeholder noted the board would not be beneficial until after FAA has established the master source guidance system because the board should be able to refer to that guidance in demonstrating how it makes decisions. The Regulatory Consistency Committee recommended that FAA improve the clarity of its final rules by ensuring that each final rule contains a comprehensive explanation of the rule's purpose and how it will increase safety. FAA officials told us that this recommendation has been addressed through the work of the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory The officials told Committee's Rulemaking Prioritization Working Group.us that, as a result of this effort, all final rules, are now well-vetted across FAA. The industry representatives we interviewed had mixed opinions about whether FAA had addressed this recommendation as intended. For example, two stakeholders were in agreement with FAA that the agency had addressed it while two other stakeholders noted that FAA's new rules are still not as clear as they should be. Two stakeholders also said that it is often not the final rules but the guidance that accompanies or follows the final rules that is unclear and contributes to inconsistent interpretation and application among FAA staff. In our previous work on organizational transformations, we noted that implementing large-scale change management initiatives--like those the committees tasked FAA with--are not simple endeavors and require the concentrated efforts of both leadership and employees to realize intended synergies and accomplish new organizational goals. People are at the center of any serious change management initiative because people define the organization's culture, drive its performance, and embody its knowledge base. The best approach for these types of initiatives depends upon a variety of factors specific to each context, but there has been some general agreement on a number of key practices that have consistently been found at the center of successful change management initiatives. These include, among other things, securing organizational support at all levels, developing clear principles and priorities to help change the culture, communicating frequently with partners, and setting performance measures to evaluate progress. 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. FAA officials and industry representatives we spoke to noted that shifting priorities as well as declining resources may prohibit FAA from devoting the time and resources needed for completing the initiatives in the planned time frames. They agreed that a primary challenge for FAA will be having the dedicated resources that will be needed to successfully implement the committees' recommendations. We have previously found that successful organizational transformations and cultural changes require several years of focused attention from the agency's senior leadership. This lesson is consistent with our previous work on organizational transformation, which indicates that support from top leadership is indispensable for fundamental change. Top leadership's clear and personal involvement in the transformation represents stability for both the organization's employees and its external partners. Top leadership must set the direction, pace, and tone for the transformation. Additionally, buy-in and acceptance among the workforce will be critical to successful implementation of the initiatives to address the two committees' recommendations. Additionally, as we described in our 2010 report, FAA prioritizes ensuring the continued operational safety of the people and products already operating in the national airspace system over processing new certifications and approvals. We reported in the 2010 report that Flight Standards staff had little or no incentive to perform certification work under the system in which their pay grades are established and Other than inspectors involved with overseeing air carriers, maintained.Flight Standards inspectors are typically responsible for a variety of types of certificate holders. Each certificate is allocated a point value based on the complexity of the certificate or operation, and the combined point value for each inspector's oversight responsibilities must meet or exceed the points allocated for the inspector's grade. However, not all of the inspectors' duties--including certification work--receive points in this system, and inspectors are subject to a downgrade if entities in their portfolio relocate or go out of business. FAA and industry representatives also cited FAA's organizational culture as a primary challenge for FAA in successfully implementing these initiatives. They noted that many of the certification process and regulatory consistency initiatives FAA is attempting to implement represent cultural shifts for FAA staff in how regulations, policy, and guidance are applied, and ultimately how certification and approval decisions are made. 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. Further, industry representatives have identified the lack of communication with and involvement of stakeholders as a primary challenge for FAA in implementing the committees' recommendations, particularly the regulatory consistency recommendations. Successful agencies we have studied based their strategic planning, to a large extent, on the interests and expectations of their stakeholders, and stakeholder involvement is important to ensure agencies' efforts and resources are targeted at the highest priorities. However, representatives of two industry organizations we interviewed told us that FAA did not provide the opportunity for early input and that outreach is low regarding the certification process recommendations, and representatives of four industry organizations indicated that FAA has not sought their input in responding to the regulatory consistency recommendations. They reported that FAA had neither kept in contact with or advised them of its plans nor engaged the Regulatory Consistency Committee participants in the drafting of the detailed implementation plan that is expected to be published in August. As an example, as previously discussed, when Flight Standards published a memo in December 2013 calling for the cancellation of non-official guidance, several members of the Regulatory Consistency Committee were unaware of the change and expressed surprise and dissatisfaction with the action and offered their assistance. Representatives of one industry group noted that FAA sought their input on addressing the Certification Process Committee's recommendations for subsequent revisions of its implementation plan. 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. In addition, most of the initiatives are scheduled to be implemented by 2017. Although we have assessed FAA's plan for developing these metrics as reasonable, the agency may miss an opportunity to gather early data for evaluating the effectiveness of its actions and making any needed corrections. There is no detailed plan for implementing initiatives addressing the consistency of regulatory interpretation recommendations and measuring their outcomes. In recent meetings, FAA officials told us they have had difficulty in determining how to measure the outcomes of its regulatory consistency initiatives and have not been able to determine what specific performance metrics could be used. 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. We are not making any new recommendations because the recommendation we made in 2010 for FAA to develop outcome-based performance measures and a continuous evaluative process continue to have merit related to this issue. To its credit, FAA has initiated some efforts and sound planning for addressing the committees' recommendations. However, it will be critical for FAA to follow through with its initiatives and plans for developing performance metrics to achieve the intended efficiencies and consistencies. As we noted in our October 2013 statement, however, some improvements to the certification and approval processes, will likely take years to implement and, therefore, will require a sustained commitment as well as congressional oversight. Chairwoman Cantwell, Ranking Member Ayotte, and Members of the Subcommittee, this completes my prepared statement. I would be pleased to respond to any questions at this time. For further information on this testimony, please contact Gerald L. Dillingham, Ph.D., at (202) 512-2834 or dillinghamg@gao.gov. In addition, contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this statement. Individuals making key contributions to this testimony statement include Vashun Cole, Assistant Director; Andrew Von Ah, Assistant Director; Jessica Bryant-Bertail; Jim Geibel; Josh Ormond; Amy Rosewarne; and Pamela Vines. The following individuals made key contributions to the prior GAO work: Teresa Spisak, Assistant Director; Melissa Bodeau, Sharon Dyer, Bess Eisenstadt, Amy Frazier, Brandon Haller, Dave Hooper, Sara Ann Moessbauer, and Michael Silver. This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. The published product may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without further permission from GAO. 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Summary:
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 processes and another to address regulatory consistency--which recommended improvements in 2012. In 2013, FAA published an implementation plan for addressing the certification 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 provides the same information as GAO-14-728T , which was based on GAO products issued from 2010 to 2014, updated in July 2014 through reviews of recent FAA documents and interviews of FAA officials and industry representatives. 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, and 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.