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AOPA asks Senate to move on FAA reauthorization bill, but don’t do the deal behind closed doors

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is calling on the U.S. Senate to take action on the FAA reauthorization bill, and do it “in the sunshine.”

The bill would authorize funding for all FAA operations and programs for five years and would set long-term policy guidance for the agency.

“The Senate has been working on its reauthorization bill for more than a year,” said AOPA President Phil Boyer, “yet it doesn’t seem any closer to completion than it was when the House passed its bill four months ago.”

The FAA is currently operating without authorization under congressional stopgap measures, but funding for airport construction and improvement (AIP) has stopped.

In letters to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), Boyer wrote, “The aviation community has been eager to move forward with a long-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration for several years.... Although we understand the time constraints on the Senate, we believe this legislation is important, and we respectfully urge you to schedule floor time for consideration of the FAA reauthorization bill as soon as possible.”

That bill, S.82, is similar to the House-passed reauthorization bill, H.R.1000 (also called AIR-21). However, the Senate bill does not include the House’s special budget treatment that would permit all aviation trust fund monies to be spent promptly on aviation.

Boyer noted that new provisions may be added to the Senate bill in a “manager’s amendment.” That amendment would be part of negotiations between the House and Senate leadership and the administration on a final reauthorization bill.

(Manager’s amendments usually contain small technical corrections to bills. But sometimes an amendment can be used to make wholesale changes to a bill without the usual debate process.)

“We are concerned there will be no time to review or provide input on these new provisions, some of which may prove unintentionally damaging to general aviation,” Boyer told the Senate leadership. “If the Senate isn’t able to publicly debate the reauthorization bill, we ask you to introduce the manager’s amendment as a separate bill” so the new issues can be reviewed.

“Legislation establishing the future and direction of the FAA is much too important to be written in haste behind closed doors,” Boyer concluded.

A copy of Boyer’s letter to the Senate leadership is available on AOPA Online.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, based outside Washington, D.C., represents more than 350,000 pilots who own or fly three quarters of the nation’s 192,000 general aviation aircraft. General aviation aircraft comprise 96 percent of the total U.S. civilian air fleet.

99-3-062

September 16, 1999