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The U.S. Congress has once again pushed off passage of a full Fiscal Year 2017 government-wide funding bill, opting instead another short-term stopgap measure. That sets up a possible budget showdown early next year as the industry renews debate over the funding of the air traffic control system.
The measure, passed just an hour before federal funding was set to expire under a previous stopgap bill late last week, will fund the federal government through April 28. Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) president and CEO David Melcher expressed hope that the 115th Congress will “choose the harder right and pass budget bills instead of the easier wrong of a long-term continuing resolution.”
Passage of full appropriations bills, instead of stopgap measures, “can eliminate much inefficiency in government contracting,” Melcher said, adding, “This is really not a heavy lift folks, and it is about time this happens.”
AIA and more than 70 CEOs of aerospace companies had urged Congress in November to pass a full bill rather than a stopgap measure, saying, “few things could provide a greater sense of stability for our industry going forward than completing final FY2017 appropriations bills.”
The four-month extension comes as the aviation industry returns its attention to long-term FAA priorities and the possibility of reorganization of the ATC system.
ATC reform advocates have pointed to the fits and starts of the appropriations process as an underlying reason for a need to create a user-funded, independent ATC organization removed from the annual congressional appropriations process. Airlines for America (A4A) CEO Nick Calio this fall had noted the specter of a government shutdown, saying, “There is the exhausting potential for it to happen again. This cycle of dysfunction in funding perfectly underscores the critical flaws in the current system and why A4A is advocating for air traffic control modernization.”
National Air Traffic Controllers Association president Paul Rinaldi and executive v-p Trish Gilbert also last fall had urged Congress to work through its issues to pass a funding bill to support the National Airspace System (NAS). “For the last three years, we’ve been asking Congress to establish a stable, predictable funding mechanism to fund the NAS.”
Since the measure primarily was a simple funding extension for most agencies, it did not address other legislative initiatives. The House and Senate versions of FY2017 funding bills included various measures to address certification reform and inspector staffing, as well as continuation of the mandate for the agency to honor requests to block access to registration information on real-time flight-tracking programs.
AIA had also urged the lawmakers to “restore full functionality” of the U.S. Export-Import Bank by providing means for the bank to authorize transactions greater than $10 million. The stopgap measure, however, did not address Ex-Im funding, leaving that issue to continue into 2017.
The U.S. Congress has once again pushed off passage of a full Fiscal Year 2017 government-wide funding bill, opting instead for another short-term stopgap measure. That sets up a possible budget showdown early this year as the industry renews debate over the funding of the ATC system.
The measure, passed last month just an hour before federal funding was set to expire under a previous stopgap bill, will fund the federal government through April 28. Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) president and CEO David Melcher expressed hope that the 115th Congress will “choose the harder right and pass budget bills instead of the easier wrong of a long-term continuing resolution.”
Passage of full appropriations bills, instead of stopgap measures, “can eliminate much inefficiency in government contracting,” Melcher said, adding, “This is really not a heavy lift, folks, and it is about time this happens.”
AIA and 70 CEOs of aerospace companies had urged Congress in November to pass a full bill rather than a stopgap measure, saying, “Few things could provide a greater sense of stability for our industry than completing final FY2017 appropriations bills.”
The four-month extension came as the aviation industry returned its attention to long-term FAA priorities and the possibility of reorganization of the ATC system. ATC reform advocates have pointed to the fits and starts of the appropriations process as an underlying reason for a need to create a user-funded, independent ATC organization removed from the annual congressional appropriations process. Airlines for America (A4A) CEO Nick Calio in the fall had noted the specter of a government shutdown, saying, “There is the exhausting potential for it to happen again. This cycle of dysfunction in funding perfectly underscores the critical flaws in the current system and why A4A is advocating for ATC modernization.”
National Air Traffic Controllers Association president Paul Rinaldi and executive v-p Trish Gilbert also last fall had urged Congress to work through its issues to pass a funding bill to support the National Airspace System (NAS). “For the last three years, we’ve been asking Congress to establish a stable, predictable funding mechanism to fund the NAS.”
Since the measure primarily was a simple funding extension for most agencies, it did not address other legislative initiatives. The House and Senate versions of FY2017 funding bills included various measures to address certification reform and inspector staffing, as well as continuation of the mandate for the agency to honor requests to block access to registration information on real-time flight-tracking programs.
The AIA had also urged the lawmakers to “restore full functionality” of the U.S. Export-Import Bank by providing means for the bank to authorize transactions greater than $10 million. The stopgap measure, however, did not address Ex-Im funding, leaving that issue to continue into this year.