Legislation that would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration has run afoul of Senate appropriators.
In a Sept. 20 letter to the Finance Committee, appropriators criticized draft provisions that would make new FAA revenue off-limits to the appropriations process. The Finance panel wrote the revenue provisions, which will be merged with the Senate's FAA bill (S 1300).
"In our view, such an action would be inappropriate and detrimental to the Congress' ability to review and control FAA spending," the appropriators wrote.
The letter was signed by Sens. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the chairman and ranking member of the Appropriations Committee; and Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo., the chairwoman and ranking member of the Transportation-HUD Subcommittee.
At issue are Finance provisions that would raise some aviation taxes and deposit the revenues into a new sub-account of the Airport and Airways Trust Fund. Those funds would be dedicated to modernizing the air traffic control system.
According to a Senate aide familiar with the Finance draft -- which has not yet been reported to the full Senate -- the new sub-account would be classified as mandatory spending, not subject to appropriations.
Additionally, spending from this account would have to be approved by a seven-member air traffic control modernization board established by the larger bill. The board would be made up of the FAA administrator, a Defense Department official, someone with a "fiduciary responsibility to represent the public interest" and four aviation-industry stakeholders.
"Given the FAA's record, we do not see any merit in putting any part of the FAA modernization budget on 'automatic pilot' and substituting our committee's oversight role with that of an un-elected 'Modernization Board' that is not answerable to the taxpayers," the senators wrote in their letter. "We strongly oppose such efforts and ask that you revise these provisions before the bill is brought before the full Senate for debate."
The House passed its FAA reauthorization (HR 2881) on Sept. 24. It is unclear when the Senate's version may see floor time.
Lawmakers are working to get a short-term extension of the FAA's programs cleared before the current authorization (PL 108-176) expires Sept. 30.
The programs could be extended temporarily either with a stand-alone bill (HR 3540), which would extend the FAA for three months; or with a continuing resolution (H J Res 52), which would extend the agency through Nov. 16, along with the rest of the government's funding.
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