Story ID: 
Senate Begins Debate on FAA Bill
By: Kerry Lynch
Caption: The Senate must wade through a number of potential amendments, including those surrounding security and taxes.
Word Count: 342
The U.S. Senate this week began consideration of comprehensive FAA reauthorization, legislation but lawmakers first must wade through a number of potential amendments, including those involving security and energy tax breaks. Many of these are expected to come up for consideration today as debate continues.

Senate Commerce Committee chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) has remained open to potential security amendments, saying he would “listen to the views of my colleagues on whether to pursue enactment of these bipartisan aviation security proposals through this reauthorization or through separate legislation.”

The lawmakers also are believed to have reached a deal on using the bill as a vehicle to renew certain energy tax breaks that were left out of the most recent tax extenders package. But those breaks are drawing objections from the conservative ranks.

The FAA bill, however, is drawing strong support from both sides of the aisle. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) praised the bill as balanced and “the product of a collaborative committee process.”

Thune added, “We worked hard to find middle ground on a number of issues to enable us to move this bill forward. Air traffic control reform and a passenger facility charge increase were excluded from the package because, at present, these proposals lack sufficient support and their inclusion could have jeopardized the legislation.” He noted that the Senate version of the FAA bill covers only an 18-month time frame and said, “This allows us to enact important reforms now while providing an opportunity to revisit other issues reasonably soon.”

While Thune has remained open to discussions of FAA ATC reform, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the ranking Democrat on the Commerce Committee, continued to discount the potential for such consensus in the House proposal for independent ATC. “There is no basis for the chatter coming from some in the House that hearts and minds will change here in the Senate on air traffic control privatization. Air traffic control privatization is just not going to happen.”