Next stop for lawmakers after highway bill: Aviation funding

The next stop for lawmakers now that they have passed a new five-year highway bill is a new authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Lawmakers are expected to pivot quickly to the FAA bill, which is currently set to expire on March 31. The measure, which authorizes funding for air traffic controllers, is expected to contain a controversial proposal to privatize some functions of the nation’s flight navigation system. 

Aviation groups are calling for lawmakers to display a similar sense of urgency about the FAA’s funding as they did during the debate over the recently completed highway bill. 

{mosads}”It’s time to reauthorize the FAA,” the group that lobbies for airlines in Washington, Airlines for America (A4A), says on its website. 

“Every four years Congress has the opportunity to reauthorize funding and establish priorities for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is tasked with providing a safe and efficient air traffic control system,” the airline group continued. “We believe Congress should address several high priority issues as it works to make air travel even safer and more efficient.” 

Lawmakers brought themselves some more time to deal with the issue of aviation funding during the highway bill debate when they passed a six-month extension of the FAA’s funding, which had been set to expire on Sept. 30. 

Three months of the extra time was diverted to finishing work on the multiyear highway bill, however, and now lawmakers are scrambling to get back up to speed on aviation funding. 

Lawmakers on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are scheduled to hold a roundtable discussion on Tuesday about the FAA’s air traffic controller staffing procedures on Tuesday. 

Officials with the panel said “the roundtable will include discussion of controller hiring and staffing updates since the release of the FAA’s 2015 Controller Workforce Plan, controller staffing levels at critical air traffic control facilities, the impact of previous and future planned changes to FAA’s controller hiring process, the adequacy of controller training programs, and future staffing plans.” 

Airline groups have embraced plans from GOP leaders in the House to move to a partially-private air traffic control (ATC) system. 

“We strongly encourage congressional leaders to reform and modernize our ATC system, thus restoring our place as a leader in aviation technology, making air travel more efficient for all of our passengers and maintaining our world-class safety record,” A4A said in a recent blog post on its website. 

“We think the best way to modernize the system is to create a federally chartered, non-profit organization to oversee ATC operations, while allowing the FAA to continue working to ensure the U.S. has the safest skies in the world,” the airline group continued. 

Air traffic controller groups have encouraged Congress to focus on stabilizing the FAA’s funding and addressing a shortfall in the agency’s air traffic controller hiring. 

“I want to be clear: The safety of the air traffic control system is not at risk. But maintaining safety is coming at the cost of efficiency and modernization,” National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Paul Rinaldi said in a recent statement. 

“We have far too few controllers in our towers and radars rooms. If left unaddressed, the situation could result in delays similar to those the country experienced in April 2013, when air traffic controllers were furloughed due to the mandatory budget cuts,” he continued. “Bureaucratic inertia is slowing the hiring process, and at the worst possible time. The number of fully certified air traffic controllers is at the lowest level in 27 years.”

The air traffic controllers union has been suspicious of previous efforts to privatize parts of the nation’s air traffic control system, arguing that partially-private systems that are in effect in places such as Canada may not be transferrable to the U.S. 

The debate will likely heat up as lawmakers push to finish work on a multiyear FAA bill, because GOP leaders in the House have said they are prepared to include the partial privatization plan in the agency’s next spending measure. 

The FAA has been at the center of budget battles in Washington before. The agency’s last funding measure, in 2012, was passed following a string of more than 20 temporary extensions that resulted in a partial shutdown of the agency in 2011. 

The FAA’s funding was also cut in the 2013 sequester, resulting in air traffic controller furloughs and flight delays, before Congress passed a quick fix to restore the spending. 

Airline groups are hoping to avoid a repeat of those earlier standoffs in the upcoming FAA battle that will take shape in the beginning of next year. 

“Now is the time to restore our nation’s global leadership role in air traffic control (ATC) technology and innovation,” A4A said in a statement as lawmakers were finishing up work on the highway bill. 

“We have the safest aviation system in the world, but it must also be the most modern and efficient,” the airline group concluded.