The FAA is facing the prospect of a double lapse with a potential government shutdown but also expiration of its operating authority on October 1 should the U.S. Congress fail to reach an agreement on both.
A comprehensive five-year FAA reauthorization bill passed the House in July but got held up in the Senate over a dispute on the 1,500-hour rule, as well as landing slots at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. While the slots issue apparently is resolvable, lawmakers remain at loggerheads over the requirement for both the pilot and copilot to have at least 1,500 hours to operate under Part 121.
Measures have floated in the House and Senate that would seek to permit more simulator credit or alter the requisite 1,500 hours, The House version had called for up to 150 hours of simulator credit but lawmakers removed this measure before final passage in that chamber.
The Air Line Pilots Association this week said it applauded Senate aviation subcommittee chair Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) “for holding the line on aviation safety during her remarks at The Aero Club of Washington, D.C., where she said that she will not let the FAA reauthorization move forward if the 1,500-hour rule is under attack.”
With no agreement in sight, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chair Sam Graves (R-Missouri) crafted a “clean” three-month reauthorization extension and preferred its passage as a stand-alone extension.
However, it is unclear whether that will be accepted in the Senate, which had discussed tying it to a short-term government funding continuing resolution (CR). Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg indicated in a press conference with reporters on Wednesday that there were a lot of scenarios under discussion, one of which “has a different timeline for the extension than it does for the CR. We’re trying to be ready and nimble to adapt to whatever Congress throws our way, but this is no way to run a ball club.”
Hill insiders were hoping to see some progress on a short-term extension this afternoon. When asked about the consequences of an expiration of the FAA’s operating authority, Buttigieg said it would have “a number of negative impacts, and a lot of people wouldn’t be able to effectively do their jobs.”
For starters, the agency would not be able to collect revenue from aviation excise taxes or spend revenue from the aviation trust fund, he feared, “and some of that might never come back in so effectively, it's kind of like a tax holiday for airline charges that never come in to improve airports and meet other critical needs.”
Buttigieg added, “It's right alongside the other forms of disruption is something that we just don't need right now.”
As for the looming shutdown, Buttigieg, acting FAA Administrator Polly Trottenberg, and National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy, all have alerted of serious concerns should government funding lapse on September 30.
Key among them is a lapse in training for new air traffic controllers at a time when the agency is recovering from the pandemic and boosting staffing.
“We're not going to compromise on safety and a big part of what the agency does is sort of in the exempted categories, including controllers,” Trottenberg told reporters recently. “But training and contracting, a lot of things do get disrupted. If we shut down for a couple of weeks, it takes a lot more than a couple of weeks to recover, particularly on the training side…It is going to be challenging for a 24/7 operational agency like the FAA if there's a shutdown.”
Homendy echoed those concerns, saying, “I’m especially concerned we’d lose the progress we’re making in addressing the shortage of air traffic controllers, a safety-critical profession that’s already chronically understaffed. A shutdown would stop ATC training at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City for the duration of the shutdown and take time after to ramp back up.”
She also warned, “A shutdown would bring to a screeching halt [the NTSB’s] ability to advocate for the safety measures needed to achieve zero death.”
Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that the provision surrounding simulator time credit towards 1,500 had been removed from the House bill.