Last month I told you that the Clinton administration, for the third year in a row, has asked for FAA user fees in its budget (see " President's Position: User Fees, Again?" March Pilot). The administration's quest for user fees goes back to 1995, when the FAA proclaimed that the agency would face a $12 billion funding gap that would threaten its operations.
Government agencies routinely exaggerate their needs at budget time. The FAA's day-to-day operations are not in jeopardy. But the long-term picture for airports and the rest of the aviation infrastructure is serious. To overcome current delays, meet the needs of future aviation growth, and maintain safety, the nation will require $3 billion more a year in capital investments.
The Clinton administration routinely uses this serious problem as an excuse for user fees, but that's the wrong solution to the wrong problem. The administration wants user fees because they would allow the government to spend more money on nonaviation programs. The government already has plenty of money that it could spend on aviation. The problem is that it's not spent because it is locked up in the Airport and Airway Trust Fund.
Every penny in the trust fund comes from excise taxes paid by the aviation industry, including the taxes that general aviation pilots pay on fuel. The money is set aside for aviation use, but much of it sits unused in the aviation trust fund because federal law imposes a cap on overall spending. The FAA's budget falls under that overall cap, which is slated for a 5-percent cut this year. Even though the revenue that we pay to the trust fund is intended for aviation, we can't spend our own money. That should change.
AOPA feels that members would be best served if legislation were passed this year to unlock the Airport and Airway Trust Fund so that the money can be spent promptly for its intended purpose — aviation.
By unlocking the trust fund, we can provide desperately needed funds for airports and equipment when they are needed. By unlocking the trust fund, we can put our taxes to good use. By unlocking the trust fund, we can put a stop to the continuing push for user fees.
The time is right to pass this historic legislation. This struggle's leader in Congress, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), has declared 1999 the "year of aviation" and has vowed to unlock the aviation trust fund. Rep. Shuster has joined with his committee's top Democrat, James Oberstar (Minn.), in introducing the Truth in Budgeting Act (H.R.111) as the first step toward that goal. H.R.111 would remove aviation trust fund spending from the overall spending cap. It would also continue to fund 30 percent of the FAA's budget from the general fund, which reflects military and government use of air traffic control and the benefits of aviation to the entire economy.
Rep. Shuster pushed a similar bill through Congress last year to unlock the Highway Trust Fund, which is also funded by users who pay at the pump. The projection of future budget surpluses, combined with weariness in Congress over constant calls for FAA user fees as a backdoor tax increase, gives us a good chance for success.
But a change of this size and scope requires the full assistance of every member reading this column. With one-third of a million members, AOPA is the largest aviation group in the nation, and now is the time to take advantage of that strength.
I am issuing a call to action for all pilots to write a letter to their elected representatives in Congress to urge them to support unlocking the trust fund.
Please tell your representative in the House and both your senators you demand that the money aviation users pay be spent promptly for aviation needs. Tell them to support H.R.111, and be sure to ask your representative to cosponsor the bill. Tell them to preserve the general fund contribution to the FAA's budget. Tell them Congress needs to unlock the trust fund and spend the money that it has — not charge new user fees.
You can multiply your effectiveness by making your fellow pilots aware of this effort. Feel free to reprint this article and post it at your FBO, flying club, or EAA chapter.
The best communication to Congress is a one-page letter. E-mail is better than no letter at all, but all e-mail messages look the same, and legislators are so swamped with e-mails from all over the country that many don't have time to read them. In our experience, a letter gets the most attention on Capitol Hill.
Write your House member at the U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515, and to your senators at the U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510. (Please be sure to send me a copy here at AOPA.) For more information, including a resource for instantly finding the names of your members of Congress, a guide to writing to Congress, background information on the trust fund issue, and the actual text of the bill, visit AOPA Online's "Unlock the Trust Fund" section . This site also shows you whether your representative has cosponsored the bill, and it will provide news up-dates throughout the legislative process.
I've already begun visiting members of Congress to urge them to help unlock the trust fund. Now is the time for pilots across the country to act. We've waited years for this opportunity — let's seize the day. Write your letter now!
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