The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.
Federal and state governments have played a vital role in the nation economy by facilitating the movement of people and goods through significant investments in highways. At the federal level, the Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) uses a computer model known as the Highway Economic Requirements System (HERS) to estimate the future investment required to maintain and improve the nation highways. DOT reports the results of this analysis to the Congress on a biennial basis. However, state governments make a large number of highway infrastructure investment decisions. States currently use a variety of analytic tools to make these decisions. Interest in using HERS at the state level has grown. Two states Indiana and Oregon are already using customized versions of the model, and in December 2000, FHWA began a pilot project to test its state-level version of HERS, called HERS-ST, with interested states.
Federal and state governments have played a vital role in the nation economy by facilitating the movement of people and goods through significant investments in highways. At the federal level, the Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) uses a computer model known as the Highway Economic Requirements System (HERS) to estimate the future investment required to maintain and improve the nation highways. DOT reports the results of this analysis to the Congress on a biennial basis. However, state governments make a large number of highway infrastructure investment decisions. States currently use a variety of analytic tools to make these decisions. Interest in using HERS at the state level has grown. Two states Indiana and Oregon are already using customized versions of the model, and in December 2000, FHWA began a pilot project to test its state-level version of HERS, called HERS-ST, with interested states.