FAA Bill Shields Registry from Budget Whims

The recently enacted five-year FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 formally shields the FAA's Aircraft Registry Office from the whims of the budgeting process. Tucked within the massive bill, H.R.302, is Section 518, which directs the FAA to designate employees at the Registry in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as “excepted” in the cases of a shutdown or emergency furlough “to ensure that the office remains open for the duration of the lapse in federal government appropriations to the FAA.”

The registry has shut down on a couple of occasions over the past decade due to federal funding lapses, most recently in January as the Congress quibbled over high-profile issues such as immigration. That short-lived shutdown prompted leaders of six Washington associations—AOPA, EAA, GAMA, HAI, NATA, and NBAA—to appeal to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to reopen the registry, saying it is “vital to protection of human life and property, and necessary for the U.S. to fulfill its ongoing international legal obligations.”

The groups added that the previous shutdown, in 2013, had a profound effect on the industry, disrupting hundreds of aircraft transactions valued at more than $1.9 billion. After the 2013 shutdown, several lawmakers had offered measures to shield the registry from the fits and starts of the appropriations cycles. But the FAA Reauthorization Act was the first major reauthorization bill to pass since 2012.