Summary: Welfare reform specialists contend that transportation is an important element in moving people from welfare to work. Three-fourths of welfare recipients live in either central cities or rural areas, while two-thirds of the new jobs are in the suburbs. The effects of this geographic mismatch are compounded by the low rate of car ownership among welfare recipients. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century authorized a welfare-to-work program known as the Access to Jobs and Reverse Commute Program. The program will provide grants to local agencies and authorities, nonprofit groups, and transit authorities to improve mobility for employment. GAO is required to review the program every six months. This, the first report in response to this requirement, describes the Transportation Department's (1) overall plan to distribute Access to Jobs funds among grantees in urban and rural areas; (2) criteria to award specific Access to Jobs grants to states, localities, and other organizations; (3) efforts to coordinate the Access to Jobs program with other welfare-to-work programs; and (4) proposals to evaluate the program's success.
