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B-290600 1 (2002-07-10)

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,Accountability * Integrity* Reliability




          B-290600


          July 10, 2002

          The Honorable Bill Young
          Chairman
          Committee on Appropriations
          House of Representatives

          Subject: Apportionment of Budget Authority for America West Airlines

          Dear Mr. Chairman:

          This responds to your letter dated May 20, 2002. You requested that we determine
          whether the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) violated the Antideficiency Act
          in apportioning $172 million of budget authority for airline loan guarantees
          authorized under Title I of the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act,
          Public Law 107-42, 115 Stat. 230 (2001). As explained in further detail below, both
          OMB and the Air Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB), in January 2002,
          violated the Antideficiency Act. Four months later, in May 2002, the Administration
          corrected the violations. On June 25, 2002, ATSB reported to the Congress and the
          President that ATSB and OMB violated the Act, and that OMB had implemented
          procedures expected to ensure that a violation of this type does not occur again.

          Congress established the ATSB to review and decide on applications for federal
          credit instruments to air carriers. It is composed of the Secretary of Transportation,
          the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Secretary
          of the Treasury, and the Comptroller General of the United States (a nonvoting
          member), or their designees. Pub. L. No. 107-42, § 102(b), 115 Stat. 231. The
          Comptroller General does not participate in the review, operations, or deliberations
          of the Board in connection with individual loan guarantees, or otherwise participate
          in the Board's exercise of any executive power. 14 C.F.R. § 1300.2.

          The Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act authorized the President
          to issue up to $10 billion in federal credit instruments in the form of loan guarantees,
          and to provide the subsidy amounts necessary for such instruments,' to assist air

          'Pursuant to the Federal Credit Reform Act, agencies are required to have budget
          authority in advance to cover the long-term costs of direct loans and loan guarantees.
          2 U.S.C. § 661c(b). The cost of a loan guarantee (the subsidy cost) is the net present
          Continued

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