Senate Aides Trying To Close Deal On FAA Reauthorization

Thu. Apr. 24, 2008


Senate Finance and Commerce committee aides might be closing in on a deal on providing a four-year road map for modernizing the nation’s air traffic control system after the talks had languished for months.

After Senate Majority Leader Reid recently gave word that he wants to bring an FAA reauthorization bill to the floor before Memorial Day, aides for Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus and Commerce Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., have tried to speed up the discussions. A Rockefeller aide said the intensity in the discussions was “pretty high.”

A Reid spokeswoman said the bill could be called up as early as Friday, though a Senate GOP aide said Republicans expect the bill to come up next week. Committee aides in both parties said that while a deal has not been reached, they will be able to bring a bill to the floor whenever Reid asks them to do so. Finance aides have been trying to spare some time away from the farm bill, which has also been a massive struggle to complete.

The Senate bill has been stalled by a dispute over how best to provide consistent funding to help begin transferring from a ground-based to a satellite-based air traffic control system.

A Commerce Committee plan imposes a $25 per flight surcharge in an effort to bridge the gap between what airlines and general aviation would be providing toward the modernization effort.

Rockefeller is open to the idea of ditching that $25 surcharge for something else as long as there is another way to earn the same $400 million in guaranteed annual funding that he estimates would come from that user fee. “The question is ‘what is that going to be?’ I don’t think anybody knows that yet,” a Rockefeller aide said.

Rockefeller this week said general aviation needs to know that they are going to pay more one way or another, noting that if a surcharge is not implemented, then higher taxes will be. “We may just have to do that,” he said, regarding boosting general aviation taxes.

The Bush administration and airlines have embraced user fees, which are fiercely opposed by general aviation groups. The Finance Committee had proposed to rely on aviation taxes. A House-passed bill in September raises general aviation taxes while not changing those for airlines. General aviation groups supported the bill because it left the current tax structure in place and rejected user fees.

There has been increasing public attention to flight delays and airline safety since the Senate committees and the full House approved their respective plans last year. Airlines in recent weeks have canceled hundreds of flights and stranded tens of thousands of passengers as FAA cracked down on safety inspections in the wake of public disclosure that Southwest Airlines had flown thousands of flights on planes that had not undergone routine inspections.

Lawmakers have outlined a series of steps they want FAA to take to overhaul the agency’s safety oversight and some might use the FAA bill as a vehicle for their ideas, which could add to a growing list of issues in the bill and further muddy the waters.

The White House has threatened to veto the House bill because it would require FAA and the air traffic controllers union to go to binding arbitration to resolve a long-standing contract dispute. It also includes language making it easier for the Teamsters to organize FedEx workers.

Democratic leaders might be facing increasing pressure to show some formal action on addressing airline delays and safety. Possibly giving further impetus to act, the Senate Commerce bill includes some “passenger bill of rights” language that requires airlines to guarantee food, water and clean bathrooms for passengers during delays and opens the door for passengers to leave planes that are stuck on the tarmac.

Congress has given several short-term extensions to federal aviation excise taxes since they initially expired at the end of September.

by Darren Goode

Thu. Apr. 24, 2008