FAA Set for Small Funding Boost in Federal Funding Bill

The U.S. Congress came down to the wire once again and required one more short-term extension before it agreed to a federal spending package for Fiscal Year 2017, but the result was a package that provides a $127 million boost to the FAA’s budget and drew praise for its focus on issues such as certification reform.

In early May the House and Senate adopted a massive $1.1 trillion government-wide spending package, part of which was $16.4 billion for the FAA.

Congress passed the FY2017 budget early last month, even though the government was already halfway through the fiscal year. Government agencies had been operating under a series of short-term extensions since the fiscal year began on October 1. Congress gave itself a deadline of the end of April to complete work on a comprehensive bill, and then required one more extension, for a week, to get the spending package passed.

The spending package, H.R.244, was welcomed by business and general aviation industry advocates for placing a particular emphasis on a number of areas of interest to general aviation: certification, advanced materials and alternative fuels research and NextGen.

In addition to the gain on Fiscal Year 2016 spending, the $16.4 billion is $500 million more than the previous administration requested for the FAA. The bill bumps the FAA’s operations spending to $10.026 billion, $30 million over the request, and covers aviation safety funding for acceleration of introducing drones into the National Airspace System.

The aviation safety budget—which is part of the FAA’s operations account—was set at $1.29 billion, including an additional $1.5 million to enable the FAA to hire more specialists to support certification of new technologies and expand organizational delegation authorization (ODA). Congress specified that the additional funding is intended to provide the FAA necessary resources “to work with industry to achieve the goal of full utilization of ODA to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of product certification.” The spending package contains language directing the agency to review and remove ODA limitations on activities deemed to be of low or medium risk.

Further, the bill commends the FAA for efforts that Congress believes will result in streamlined validation of type certificates. Lawmakers directed the agency “to ensure that the efficiency of foreign validations is consistent” with bilateral agreements. Congress also directed the FAA to assist U.S. companies that experience significant delays.

The bill assigns $159 million for the contract tower program and prohibits eliminating the contract weather observers program.

The spending package provides $2.855 billion for the FAA’s facilities and equipment expenses, including $7 million more than requested to advance space-based ADS-B technology. In the $176.5 million earmarked for research, engineering and development efforts is $2 million for research in composite materials and structures testing and development, and $7 million for alternative fuels for general aviation. Congress established a $3.35 billion obligation limitation for airport funding.

Additionally, the bill returned some provisions that have been written into past spending bills, among them a prohibition on altering the weight limitation at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and privacy protections surrounding the display of aircraft registration numbers on flight-tracking websites.

The bill carries over report language in the House and Senate versions of the transportation appropriations bills that were introduced last year, such as the continued opposition to ATC reform. “The attempt to remove the air traffic control system from the FAA is fraught with risk, could lead to uncontrollable cost increases to consumers and could ultimately harm users and operators in the system,” the Senate report language says. “The [Appropriations] committee strongly believes that air traffic control should remain an inherently governmental function.”

GA Priorities Acknowledged

National Air Transportation Association president Martin Hiller praised the bill’s recognition of general aviation priorities, citing full funding for the contract tower program, additional funding for alternative fuels research and more than one billion dollars to continue NextGen modernization.

Hiller also pointed to other initiatives such as the effort to accelerate certification and a measure that would examine the effect of collegiate flight training on the future pilot workforce. “Continued work by congressional appropriators is an important part of making the FAA an effective safety partner with the general aviation community,” he said.

“We appreciate the strong support shown by Congress in this omnibus measure for general aviation, especially in the critical areas of safety, certification and the transition to an unleaded avgas and in raising strong concerns about the attempt to remove the U.S. air traffic control system from the FAA,” added Pete Bunce, president and CEO of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.

NBAA further highlighted language that provides the FAA with more flexibility in using its funding, something that NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen said provides “the agency with more tools to help ensure that its programs have stable, predictable funding.”

While the bill drew mostly praise it does continue the trend of elevated reliance on the Airport and Airway Trust fund to pay for the vast majority of the FAA’s budget. All but 8 percent of the FAA’s operations budget will be paid through the user-funded trust fund.