Report: House working on FAA funding extension
Privatization legislation delayed but push to continue
According to an interview in the Washington-based publication CQ, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Highways and Transit Subcommittee, said the House will need an extension of the FAA’s funding instead of the controversial 21st Century AIRR Act (H.R. 2997), a bill that would remove air traffic control from the FAA. Without some sort of legislative action, the FAA will run out of spending authority Sept. 30.
“We obviously have to have an extension or something in place by Sept. 30,” said Graves. “We’re going to have to get to work on that because regardless of if the House were to pass something and the Senate were to pass something, we’re not going to make the deadline. The reality is we can’t conference everything out in that amount of time.”
“An extension was becoming inevitable, but the fight over the so-called privatization of air traffic control is not over," said AOPA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy Jim Coon. “There is no consensus in the aviation community, and the best course of action would be to remove the controversial section that would hand over our nation’s air traffic control system to special interests and folks who want to make your airline seat even smaller. In my view, removing this provision would ensure strong bipartisan passage of Chairman Bill Shuster’s FAA reauthorization bill.”
AOPA encourages pilots and the public to contact their members of Congress and encourage them to oppose H.R. 2997. To learn more about the impact of so-called privatization of ATC and download the ATC privatization checklist, visit AOPA’s resource page.
Share your thoughts on ATC privatization with fellow pilots at AOPAHangar.com.
