Story ID: 
ADS-B Final Rule Hits Stumbling Blocks
By: Andrew Wood
Caption: The FAA’s long-promised April 10 release of its ADS-B final rule appears to have hit two bureaucratic stumbling blocks.
Word Count: 167
The FAA’s long-promised April 10 release of its ADS-B final rule appears to have hit two bureaucratic stumbling blocks. For the agency to complete the process, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) must sign off on the program’s financial aspects, an activity that usually takes 90 days. Unfortunately, although FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt signed off in early December and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood reportedly signed off shortly afterward, AIN understands that the paperwork did not reach the OMB until February 19. But the OMB is not committed to complete its studies within 90 days, making mid-May the likely, rather than the official, final rule date. Possibly also affecting the date will be the result of an information technology security and controls audit of the FAA’s ADS-B program that was launched in December by the DOT Inspector General’s office at the request of Congress. Security has been a less publicized ADS-B concern, particularly regarding satellite outages and adversarial jamming, against which pilots have little protection.