With the FAA's funding deadline less than two weeks away, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) added the bill to this week's House schedule for possible consideration. A GOP aide told Politico on Monday that "the finish line is close."
It would appear that the air traffic control reconfiguration, proposed by the airlines and vehemently fought by those in business and general aviation, will not be included in the final House bill. Eleven senators, however, signed onto a letter "late last week," according to another Politico report, urging House leaders on both sides of the aisle to consider boosting security at airport "soft targets" including check-in and baggage claim areas.
“We’re not about as a country to take our highway system and turn it over to the trucking industry and allow them to make all the decisions related to that,” said Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) at a Wisconsin Business Aviation Association event in Racine, Wisconsin on June 23. “Our public airspace is supposed to serve the public good. It belongs to the public. The public’s elected representatives need to make sure it’s not taken away and run by a private board for their special interest.
“We need to make sure people know that.”
It's a war Bolen and the NBAA have been waging for nearly 20 years and one they'll likely be revisiting again if former DOT Secretary Jim Burnley is to be believed.
Burnley compared the current ATC fight with the effort to hand control of Washington National and Dulles airports to an independent authority in the 1980s, which took several years to push through, and the same ATC debate will likely take place in 18 months with a new congress (and a new president).
The final vote is yet to come, but it would seem that the ATC arrangement proposed by Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pennsylvania) will not be included in any extension or reauthorization.
