Congress Buys Six More Months while ATC Debate Roils On

The seemingly unending cycle of short-term FAA authorization extensions continues under the latest stop-gap measure passed in late September. That measure extends the agency’s programs through March 31, buying Congress six more months to hash out a long-term bill.

Whether Congress can reach agreement on a long-term bill before then remains in doubt, as neither the House nor Senate has been able to pass its respective FAA reauthorization bill, let alone come to agreement on the key sticking point: air traffic control reorganization.

The House proposal to create an independent, user-funded ATC organization continues to hold up its version of the FAA reauthorization bill, H.R.2997. But House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pennsylvania) has come close to bringing it to the floor on a few occasions. The House Rules Committee twice opened H.R.2997 to amendments, but has not yet set the parameters for consideration of the bill. Nor has the House leadership placed it on the calendar for a vote.

Even so, business aviation advocates note that Shuster is chipping away at naysayers in the House and is believed to be engaged in a full horse trade to get those votes. This strategy apparently includes promising a trucking amendment that matters to certain of the ATC reorganization opponents. One lobbyist noted that a “whopper of a manager’s amendment” is believed to be in the works.

Shuster also is picking up key allies. NetJets broke ranks with the business aviation community and wrote the T&I committee saying, “We welcome your innovative approach to modernizing and reforming the current system.”

The proposal still has strong opposition in the Senate, so it would have a difficult climb in that chamber even if it gets through the House. However, the four-year Senate FAA reauthorization bill, S.1405, which has no such ATC provision, also is stuck, apparently over an attempt to change the 1,500-hour requirement for Part 121 pilots.

While the path forward looks murky, opponents of ATC reorganization are unable to rest easy in light of progress made in the House. The issue took center stage during last month’s NBAA Convention. Using the theme of “ATC Not for Sale,” NBAA hosted a multi-pronged effort to encourage attendees to reach out to their lawmakers in opposition. Also, the heads of a half-dozen business and general aviation associations gathered at the convention to warn against what National Air Transportation Association president Martin Hiller termed the “airline-ization” of ATC.

NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen called the proposal “potentially the biggest threat we have ever seen,” and Experimental Aircraft Association chairman Jack Pelton said the outcome could be catastrophic.

While opponents have been able to stall the bill so far, said Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association president and CEO Mark Baker, there is concern about the potential of fatigue setting in among the general aviation industry as the battle continues.

The series of short-term extensions is taking a toll. Michael Huerta—in his final address before the NBAA Convention as FAA Administrator—told the business aviation audience that since he joined the FAA, the government has been “shut down” twice and faced sequestration. In addition, the FAA has dealt with a couple of dozen short-term reauthorization extensions. “That is not how the world’s best aviation system should be run,” he said.

Huerta also had a message for the NBAA audience: “I want to encourage you and every other voice in this debate to carefully consider the many—and sometimes competing—viewpoints that are being expressed.” He added that the ATC debate “is a conversation that is long overdue, and one in which all of those with a stake in the future of aviation must be included.”