When we announced AOPA's five-point plan for FAA reform at the opening of the 104th Congress 2 years ago, we thought our reforms were easy to swallow. They were simple, common-sense changes. I was disappointed (but not surprised) that we had to fight some bad ideas on Capitol Hill — privatizing the FAA, making it a corporation, or charging FAA user fees — before we got our reforms through.
But a good fight makes victory a little sweeter.
In the final hours of the 104th Congress, the House and Senate passed a bill that closely tracked AOPA Legislative Action's five-point reform plan. I had the privilege of being on hand to witness the President's signing of this bill on October 8.
The bill includes four of our five points: it gives the FAA more independence from the Department of Transportation, requires the FAA to complete rulemaking actions in 18 months, creates a Management Advisory Committee to give the FAA outside advice from industry leaders, and puts in place a process to consider financing reform.
Congress passed the fifth point in our plan, personnel and procurement reform, last year, when it freed the FAA from burdensome federal rules on hiring, salaries, and purchasing.
We hope that all five of these reforms will make the FAA more efficient, more effective, and more service-oriented. Two men deserve special pats on the back for pushing these reforms in Congress. John Duncan (R-TN), House aviation subcommittee chairman, and Rep. Jim Lightfoot (R-IA, an AOPA member and great friend to pilots) got the ball rolling when they introduced the Duncan-Lightfoot bill that included our five reform ideas.
Passing all five points of our reform plan helps to protect and promote general aviation. But our success on Capitol Hill doesn't end there. As soon as we threw cold water on the Clinton Administration's plan to corporatize the FAA, we confronted the very real threat of paying massive user fees for every service that the FAA provides.
Stopping user fees this year was an achievement in itself, especially since some very influential members of Congress joined the Clinton Administration in support of user fees.
The user fee bill, proposed by John McCain (R-AZ), Senate aviation subcommittee chairman, along with Democrats Wendell Ford (KY) and Ernest Hollings (SC), called for the FAA to get 100 percent of its funding from user fees. This bill was backed by the lobbying clout of the seven largest airlines. We would have paid the FAA for everything from licenses, medicals, and aircraft certification to weather reports, flight plans, and air traffic control services. Every time a pilot called a tower, the cash register would ring. Thinking about it still makes me shudder. AOPA Legislative Action was able to stop user fees, but only by extinguishing another fire first. The excise taxes that provide revenue to the Airport and Airway trust fund, including fuel taxes, had lapsed at the beginning of 1996. The FAA relied on the $5 billion Trust Fund surplus for a while, but the money threatened to run out by the year's end. This could have caused a funding crisis for the FAA and opened up an opportunity for user-fee proponents to push their agenda. We convinced Congress to restore the lapsed excise taxes to give the FAA a steady supply of revenue again.
Next, we worked with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) to form a commission to audit the FAA and study financing alternatives for the agency. The National Civil Aviation Review Commission will provide the first independent study of the FAA's claims that it faces massive funding shortfalls, and it will give the aviation community time to study all of the alternatives. At AOPA Expo last month, I proudly presented AOPA's Hartranft Award for government service to Sen. Stevens for his work on this issue.
While FAA reform and user fees clearly dominated our agenda in the 104th Congress, AOPA Legislative Action made progress on other issues. For example, instead of taking drastic but shortsighted action after the tragic Jessica Dubroff accident, Congress heeded our call for a reasoned approach and adopted legislation that bars a pilot from allowing a nonpilot to manipulate aircraft controls in an attempt to set a record.
Of course, we couldn't have done all of this without the help of the many AOPA members who called or wrote their representatives in Congress and supported the AOPA Legislative Action political action committee (PAC). Your letters and phone calls frequently help to turn the tide on crucial legislative issues.
Despite our success on user fees and FAA reform, I guarantee that we'll face the FAA financing issue in the next Congress. The excise taxes are set to expire again on January 1, 1997, which means that we'll have to work to reinstate them on a more permanent basis. The National Civil Aviation Review Commission that Sen. Stevens helped to create will meet to discuss FAA financing options. The FAA will once again face intense pressure to cut government spending. And user fees' supporters aren't likely to give up, either. They'll be back.
And so will AOPA Legislative Action. Once again, we'll have meaningful, positive solutions to offer. For instance, our "Linked Financing" proposal, which sets variable excise tax rates based on FAA spending, may offer a way for the government to finance this essential agency without the disruption of user fees and help to cut wasteful spending and taxes, to boot. I can't predict what Congress will do next year, but I can assure one thing: AOPA Legislative Action will be in the halls of Congress to fight on your behalf for general aviation.
