The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is developing the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) as a public use local area differential GPS system. The LAAS is required to support all categories of precision approach navigation. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the FAA's LAAS technical activities and programme plans. First, the complementary roles of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and LAAS are summarized. Then technical activities are discussed, including requirements, system architecture, and flight tests. The paper concludes with a summary of the FAA's plans for LAAS, including the planned schedule of major programme activities.