It was on June 6, a warm Thursday in Washington, D.C., that I watched as three key congressional committees confronted AOPA's number one legislative problem — proposals for massive user fees. We have fought user fees since the day that they rose from the ashes of the Clinton administration's now-dead plan to corporatize the FAA. These fees would not only be for use of the air traffic system, but also for certification, licensing, security, and many other services that we as pilots are required by regulation to use.
A handful of large international airlines are advocating user fees, and they hoped to use several committees and pending bills to advance their cause, making the fight by AOPA Legislative Action (AOPALA) against user fees a three-front war. And we fought major battles on all three fronts during the months leading up to June 6, the day I began calling "Super Thursday" around our Washington office.
When the staff of AOPALA climbed Capitol Hill on that day, each of these three committees planned to vote on bills that would significantly impact the user fee debate. The Senate Commerce Committee was considering a bill to extend the Airport Improvement Program, which authorizes the federal funding of our all-important local airport grants. I had previously testified in the Senate, advocating more funding for small airports. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the chief congressional proponent of user fees, serves on the committee, and we expected him to try to attach user fees to the airports bill.
On a more positive note, over in the House of Representatives, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would also vote on an airports bill, and it was poised — with AOPALA support — to throw a monkey wrench in the plans of user fee advocates in the Senate. And a House spending panel would consider FAA funding for next year, with the possibility that user fees might be part of the revenue strategy.
The latest chapter of this story really started in January with the expiration of the excise taxes that supply the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, including the airline ticket tax. That's right: Since January 1, the 10-percent airline ticket tax, an air cargo tax, and our aviation fuel taxes have not been going into the aviation trust fund.
The $5 billion surplus in the aviation trust fund is keeping the FAA running and is being spent at a rate of $17 million a day, or some $450 million a month. At this rate, the Aviation Trust Fund is likely to run out by year's end. AOPA has consistently urged Congress to spend our trust fund monies on aviation instead of keeping it in surplus. But we never imagined that the surplus would become the only source of FAA funding. That's how it stands now, however, because the taxes that go into the trust fund — which is the FAA's primary funding source — have expired.
User fee supporters plan to do nothing about the aviation taxes until our aviation trust fund is on the verge of bankruptcy. When Congress wakes up and notices the impending disaster that could threaten air safety, they will be waiting with a user fee bill as the quick solution.
So AOPA's goal, on your behalf, is to head off the disaster by reinstating the excise taxes. To counter the politicians who claim that the FAA cannot continue to be funded in this manner for the long term, we're advocating an independent commission to audit the agency and get to the bottom of the FAA's short-, medium-, and long-term finances, isolated from the political maelstrom over user fees that is boiling in the Capitol.
We got closer to reaching these goals on Super Thursday. First, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee handed AOPA Legislative Action a real victory by passing a bill that endorses quick reinstatement of the excise taxes. Putting the taxes on the path toward reinstatement eliminates the sense of urgency that user fee supporters hoped would lead to a mad panic later this year.
Down the hall, the House appropriations committee reported legislation, which we supported, that would set up an independent commission to examine FAA funding and how it affects safety. And what about the effort in the Senate? By Super Thursday, it appeared that support for user fees on that side of the Capitol was crumbling. Sensing defeat, McCain got a one-week postponement of the committee's session. The significance of this action is unclear. Is McCain inclined to compromise, or will the big airlines simply try harder to push their user fee idea? At this writing, I can tell you only that in the coming days, we have to do much more work, which hopefully will prove successful by the time this column reaches you.
Super Thursday was not the end of the user fee attack. AOPA Legislative Action must still move the excise tax reinstatement and independent commission idea to final passage in Congress, which won't be easy.
But Super Thursday sent a strong signal: AOPA Legislative Action and general aviation pilots nationwide will not give up. As long as we continue to send that message to Washington, we can head off the 100-percent user fee-funded FAA — the toll booth in the sky — that the big airlines, McCain, and the Clinton administration envisioned.
Super Thursday could not have been a success without the activism of you, our members. We mailed an urgent request for members who live in these committee members' states or districts to write in support of this effort. You responded to this call, which encouraged your congressmen to act as they did. As we capitalize on the success of Super Thursday and work toward finally discrediting user fees and passing real FAA reform, we'll continue to need your help.
