Travelers may not have noticed this summer when the Federal Aviation Administration suffered a two-week partial shutdown. Airports stayed open, planes took off as scheduled and prices stayed steady.
But behind the scenes, the shutdown forced airports to curtail construction projects funded by FAA grants, furloughed nearly 4,000 FAA employees plus thousands of private-sector construction workers and cost the government about $350 million in lost tax revenue — money most airlines pocketed. It was the climax of four-plus years of political gridlock surrounding the organization, which has endured 22 stopgap extensions since the last bill, passed by Congress in 2003, expired in 2007.Continue Reading
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And last week brought an embarrassing milestone: More than 1,500 days of stopgap bills, ranging in length from two weeks to several months.
Now there is renewed optimism in Congress that this time will be different — an opening for a truly bipartisan agreement on the long-term vision for the country’s aviation system. But squabbles over preserving rural air service funding and labor votes could still force a 23rd consecutive punt.
“This could be resolved in 48 to 72 hours,” said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.). “About 95 percent of the edition of the bill has been pre-conferenced.”
Of course, wrapped up in that 5 percent are sticky issues like Essential Air Service, a $200 million annual program that helps fund flights to about 150 rural communities. Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) vehemently defended the program’s benefits this summer as the GOP targeted subsidized air service for towns in their home states. One eye-popping subsidy reported by The Associated Press showed that 227 fliers traveled out of Ely, Nevada, to Las Vegas in 2010 at a cost to taxpayers of more than $4,000 per ticket.
“I mean, I have to be optimistic, right?” Rockefeller asked rhetorically. “That 5 percent could be a lot.”
Rockefeller, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee chairman, said Democrats have already ceded ground to Republicans in previous debates concerning more restrictive qualifications for EAS. That issue — along with a disagreement on how National Mediation Board votes should be counted — led to this summer’s impasse.
“We have made the compromise we’re going to make. [Mica] knows that. We’ve given stuff up and made it harder to qualify for” the subsidies, said Rockefeller.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) indicated the NMB disagreement — the GOP wants the board to return to a system that counts nonvoting workers as a “no” vote rather than discounting their votes on union petitions — is still a sticking point.
“If we could have dealt with the NMB issue back a few months ago, we’d have had a reform,” he said.
Funding is also an issue. In separate bills earlier this year, the Senate provided billions more in funding for airport improvements than the House. But there was bicameral agreement on the importance of money for programs like the Next Generation Air Transportation System, a satellite-based navigation program slated to replace the country’s outdated radar aviation system. A smooth funding outlook for NextGen’s development has been absent for years.
Since the partial shutdown in August, two extensions have passed, most recently one in September that expires on Jan. 31, 2012. But it will be the last short-term agreement if Mica gets his way.
Mica said he “went along for four years” of extensions while Republicans were in the House minority. “I don’t intend to let this go on much longer,” he said.
But behind the scenes, the shutdown forced airports to curtail construction projects funded by FAA grants, furloughed nearly 4,000 FAA employees plus thousands of private-sector construction workers and cost the government about $350 million in lost tax revenue — money most airlines pocketed. It was the climax of four-plus years of political gridlock surrounding the organization, which has endured 22 stopgap extensions since the last bill, passed by Congress in 2003, expired in 2007.Continue Reading
Text Size
-+reset
And last week brought an embarrassing milestone: More than 1,500 days of stopgap bills, ranging in length from two weeks to several months.
Now there is renewed optimism in Congress that this time will be different — an opening for a truly bipartisan agreement on the long-term vision for the country’s aviation system. But squabbles over preserving rural air service funding and labor votes could still force a 23rd consecutive punt.
“This could be resolved in 48 to 72 hours,” said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.). “About 95 percent of the edition of the bill has been pre-conferenced.”
Of course, wrapped up in that 5 percent are sticky issues like Essential Air Service, a $200 million annual program that helps fund flights to about 150 rural communities. Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) vehemently defended the program’s benefits this summer as the GOP targeted subsidized air service for towns in their home states. One eye-popping subsidy reported by The Associated Press showed that 227 fliers traveled out of Ely, Nevada, to Las Vegas in 2010 at a cost to taxpayers of more than $4,000 per ticket.
“I mean, I have to be optimistic, right?” Rockefeller asked rhetorically. “That 5 percent could be a lot.”
Rockefeller, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee chairman, said Democrats have already ceded ground to Republicans in previous debates concerning more restrictive qualifications for EAS. That issue — along with a disagreement on how National Mediation Board votes should be counted — led to this summer’s impasse.
“We have made the compromise we’re going to make. [Mica] knows that. We’ve given stuff up and made it harder to qualify for” the subsidies, said Rockefeller.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) indicated the NMB disagreement — the GOP wants the board to return to a system that counts nonvoting workers as a “no” vote rather than discounting their votes on union petitions — is still a sticking point.
“If we could have dealt with the NMB issue back a few months ago, we’d have had a reform,” he said.
Funding is also an issue. In separate bills earlier this year, the Senate provided billions more in funding for airport improvements than the House. But there was bicameral agreement on the importance of money for programs like the Next Generation Air Transportation System, a satellite-based navigation program slated to replace the country’s outdated radar aviation system. A smooth funding outlook for NextGen’s development has been absent for years.
Since the partial shutdown in August, two extensions have passed, most recently one in September that expires on Jan. 31, 2012. But it will be the last short-term agreement if Mica gets his way.
Mica said he “went along for four years” of extensions while Republicans were in the House minority. “I don’t intend to let this go on much longer,” he said.
