Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), a member of the House General Aviation Caucus, gave more than 50 AOPA members in Conroe, Texas, an overview of general aviation issues in Washington, D.C., during a recent town hall meeting that the association helped to organize.
Brady touched on the president’s proposed $100-per-flight fee for turbine aircraft that use air traffic control services, saying that he opposes the plan.
"A $100-per-flight user fee on aviation, as the president proposed in his budget, is just more of the same politics over policy we've learned to expect from this White House," said Brady, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, including aviation fuel taxes that help fund the FAA. "Washington doesn't have a tax—or fee—problem, Washington has a spending problem.”
Brady was one of 195 members of Congress to sign a March letter to President Barack Obama expressing opposition to user fees.
He also mentioned the administration’s proposal to cut funding for the FAA Contract Tower Program to $137 million. The meeting with Brady took place near the Lone Star Executive Airport in Conroe, which has a contract tower.
