The U.S. Department of Transportation has initiated changes to its TIGER Application review process effective for the pending TIGER VI round of funding.  The most important change is that once a project receives a technical rating, that rating will not change during the remainder of the review process. 

On May 28, 2014 the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report finding that in TIGER V round of funding, DOT did not document key decisions to accept and review late applications, advance projects with lower technical ratings instead of more highly-rated projects,  and change the technical ratings of lower-rated projects.

DOT noted in a letter to GAO that the TIGER VI round Notice of Funding Availability had advised applicants that late-filed applications would not be considered in the absence of documented problems with Grants.gov.  DOT noted that “the TIGER V review process had several challenges that were exacerbated, by a number of factors, including significant technical challenges with Grants.gov, loss of key senior personnel responsible for administering the program and a compressed calendar caused by a late appropriation.”

Since 2009, DOT has awarded nearly $3.6 billion in TIGER Grants and an additional $600 million is expected to be awarded by the end of 2014.