U.S. FAA Funding Bill Moves Forward in House

A U.S. House appropriations subcommittee approved a $16.3 billion Fiscal Year 2017 budget for the FAA, providing a slight increase over the current fiscal year and offering $450 million more than requested by the White House. The transportation, housing and urban development’s proposed FY2017 appropriations bill, however, would curb the FAA’s budget over the $16.4 billion Senate recommendation. Also, unlike the Senate bill, the initial House language does not address air traffic control privatization efforts.

Both House and Senate appropriators have voiced opposition to proposals to create an independent corporation to run the U.S. ATC system, and the most recent Senate appropriations bill would ban funding for such a transformation.

While the initial released version of the House bill does not address ATC privatization, it does include provisions to retain the weight restrictions at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and to require the agency to honor requests to block access to registration information on real-time flight-tracking programs. Both of those measures are in the Senate bill as well.

As for funding, the House bill would give the FAA a $69 million budget boost, provide funding for 14,500 air traffic controllers and 7,400 safety inspectors. The bill further appears to facilitate a transition to the proposed new approach to Part 23 certification, enabling the FAA to use funds to enter a grant agreement with a standards-setting organization in the development of aviation safety standards.