House to vote on stopgap FAA funding bill

The House is slated to vote on a stopgap funding measure Monday for the Federal Aviation Administration.

It would be the 19th measure Congress has approved to keep the FAA from shutting down.

The temporary funding extension would last through June 30, giving the House and Senate another month to negotiate a long-term bill to reauthorize the FAA. The funding extension would support aviation programs, taxes and expenditure authority.

{mosads}If the bill is not passed, the FAA’s “capital, research, and airport grant programs would shut down after May 31, 2011, and several thousand FAA employees would be furloughed,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee spokesperson Justin Harclerode said in an email.

Congress has been in an impasse for months over the FAA reauthorization due to differences over how to fund the agency and controversial amendments that have been tacked onto the bill.

Earlier this week, negotiations over the FAA’s reauthorization were derailed due to an amendment submitted by Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), whose nine-paragraph amendment would make it harder for airline safety regulators to issue regulations. Shuster later pulled the controversial amendment.