Lott leaving Senate a potential blow to airlines

Minority Whip Trent Lott’s (R-Miss.) resignation will remove from the Senate one of the biggest champions of the nation’s commercial airlines, which remain mired in a tense lobbying battle with other aviation interests over funding for the air traffic control system.

In another possible blow to commercial airlines, Lott is expected to be succeeded as the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee’s aviation subcommittee by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas), who has voted against the airlines’ position in the funding fight with “general aviation,” which includes business jets and other smaller planes.

{mosads}“Obviously, they would have rather had him stay,” said one aviation lobbyist who is not affiliated with either side in the debate in regard to Lott and the airlines.

Lobbyists for the commercial airlines agreed that Lott’s retirement is a blow. “His influence and leadership will be sorely missed,” said James May, president and chief executive officer of the Air Transport Association (ATA), the lobbying group for commercial airlines. At the same time, May said the impact on the funding fight remains to be seen.  

The Senate is not expected to complete a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill this year, but is expected to take up the issue again in the first few months of next year. The most controversial debate over the bill is whether general aviation will have to pay a new flat fee for using airports. The fee would be used to help fund a modernization of the air traffic control system.

Lott and aviation panel Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) have fought for the new user fees, arguing with commercial airlines that general aviation, and particularly business jets, do not pay their fair share into a trust fund that pays for the air traffic control system.

Rockefeller and Lott have battled over the issue with other members of the Senate Finance Committee, including Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking Republican Chuck Grassley (Iowa), who oppose the user fees. Finance approved a tax package that does not include user fees, and Lott’s exit could make it more difficult for commercial airlines to prevail in the fight.

“It leaves open the question of whether Rockefeller will have the strong Republican support for user fees that he had with Lott,” said Phil Boyer, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), which opposes the user fees. Boyer made the comment in a statement posted on the group’s website last week.

Congressional staffers and lobbyists expect Hutchison to succeed Lott as the ranking Republican on the Commerce aviation subcommittee. The only Republican besides Lott with more seniority on the subcommittee than Hutchison is Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who is already the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.

Hutchison voted for an amendment that would have stripped the proposed $25 per flight user fees from the bill written by Lott and Rockefeller and considered by the Senate Commerce Committee. The amendment just failed, losing by one vote.

The FAA’s current authorization expired on Sept. 30, but it was extended to Dec. 14 by a congressional resolution. A Rockefeller aide said the new FAA bill is unlikely to be taken up before the end of the year, and there is likely to be another extension of the existing authority before Congress adjourns.

“I think we are looking at sometime next year for this bill to come up,” said the aide. Rockefeller and Lott are working with Finance Committee members to ensure the user fees are in a final bill, according to the aide.   

Lott and Rockefeller have argued spreading the user fees across the entire aviation community is a more equitable method to pay for massive redevelopment of America’s air infrastructure.

Advocates for business jets, however, contend that extending user fees to their operators would not be fair because it would apply equal costs from jumbo airliners to small prop planes. They argue an increase in fuel taxes would be a better way to fund the modernization.

Both sides have held nothing back in the ensuing lobbying battle, launching ad campaigns and forming coalitions.

In support of the user fees, ATA has placed ads in Washington Metro stops and in-flight airline magazines for its “Smart Skies” campaign. The ATA posted a website with fictional housewife Edna pursing her lips at allegedly subsidizing “bigwigs” flown on corporate jets. ATA has spent more than $3 million on its in-house team as well as seven outside firms in this year alone, according to disclosure forms filed with the Senate.

In turn, opponents of user fees have formed a coalition, the Alliance for Aviation Across America, to battle against Lott’s provision. One member, AOPA, has spent $3.6 million so far this year on lobbying, while another member, the National Business Aviation Association, has doled out roughly $1.5 million in fees, according to Senate disclosure forms.

Both sides have given to Lott, who received $5,000 each in campaign contributions to a fund associated with him this cycle from ATA and AOPA, according to CQMoneyLine. Hutchison was not included among either group’s contributions so far.

Lott received about $13,000 from commercial airline political action committees (PACs) in the 2005-06 cycle, while Hutchison took in about $18,000 from similar PACs that cycle, according to CQMoneyline.  

Some lobbyists said a tough holiday travel season could spur Capitol Hill to move on the bill early next year. “If we have a real big meltdown at Christmas, I’m sure that will put pressure on Congress to pass something sooner instead of later,” said the aviation lobbyist.