For more than a decade AOPA has been on the front lines of the grass-roots fight to persuade Congress to "unlock" the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. After years of our calls for reform going unheard, we finally persuaded Congress to pass legislation that really spends the money in the aviation trust fund on what it was intended for—aviation. In March, Congress approved the FAA reauthorization bill known as AIR-21.
This landmark legislation, officially known as the Airport Improvement and Reform Act, was the brainchild of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.). Working closely with his Democrat counterpart on the committee, Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), Shuster won decisive passage of AIR-21 in the House of Representatives last year. However, passage in the Senate was a bit more difficult. Many senators who voted for a bill two years earlier that gave highways and transit systems similar treatment would not support AIR-21. We needed to find a way to persuade them that AIR-21 was what was best for aviation.
First, we called upon the grass-roots support of you, our nearly 360,000 members. In February, AOPA mailed our largest Pilot Alert ever, encouraging you to write to your senators and tell them to support AIR-21. And, as has been the case in the past, you responded.
With copies of your letters in hand, I personally went to Capitol Hill to meet with key senators as part of an all-out lobbying effort by the AOPA Legislative Affairs staff. These meetings were polite but tough, and I was impressed by the quality of the debate. In meetings with people like the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), and the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), there was no partisan bickering, just thoughtful discussion about aviation spending in the context of the entire federal budget.
Finally, Shuster and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) were able to bring the House and Senate into agreement and pass AIR-21. Our efforts not only saw passage of the bill, but also ensured its passage by a comfortable margin.
Just what does AIR-21 do? First, it "unlocks" the aviation trust fund so that $40 billion will be spent on FAA funding over the next three years. Of that, $33 billion will come out of the trust fund, while an important $6.7 billion contribution from the U.S. Treasury’s general fund will be available for appropriation by Congress on a yearly basis. Shuster and AOPA felt that this provision was vital because without it, funding levels basically remained the same.
In addition, AIR-21 significantly increases funding for GA airports and the FAA’s facilities and equipment (F&E) programs. Funding of the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) will rise to $3.2 billion next year. Most important, many GA airports will receive an annual entitlement. Likewise, F&E spending will increase from $2.6 billion to almost $3 billion over the next three years. This will go a long way toward upgrading and overhauling our outdated air traffic control system. Particularly important to GA is modernization of the computers in the FAA’s automated flight service stations.
The legislation contains many other provisions that have a direct impact on general aviation pilots. Sen. James Inhofe’s (R-Okla.) provision, known as the "Hoover Bill," was included in the final version (see "Pilot Counsel: The ‘Hoover Bill’ Becomes Law," p. 121). Now the holder of an FAA certificate has the right to appeal the immediate nature of an emergency revocation to the NTSB. Construction of a new landfill within six miles of a small airport is now prohibited unless the FAA determines it would not adversely affect safety. And the bill imposes tougher standards on airport closures by requiring the FAA to report to Congress every year the names of airports that have taken your money and not lived up to their end of the bargain. Additionally, it opens up the previously closed negotiations between the FAA and airports during proposed closures. AOPA had been working on these and other important issues for the past three years in the hope that a reauthorization bill would finally be passed.
AOPA members who took the time to write should be proud of this victory. But Pilot Alerts are not without risk. Because of your previous track record, our supporters on Capitol Hill have come to depend on your enthusiastic support and thoughtful letters. But there’s always the possibility we have misinterpreted your views on an issue, and that you would not respond to our call for assistance.
Additionally, national Pilot Alerts are imperfect mechanisms that, in the words of our very good friend and AOPA member Sen. Inhofe, imply "that all senators are attempting to block much-needed aviation funding reform." Inhofe called me to his office on Capitol Hill to express genuine concern that for every AOPA member who responded to our alert, there were others who, in not involving themselves, would be left with the impression that no one in the Senate supported AIR-21. As Inhofe pointed out at the time of the mailing, "There are at least 11 of us who are on record supporting [the principle that] all revenues generated by aviation taxes be spent on aviation." In fact, Inhofe has been fighting to free the trust fund for 10 years—long before doing so was fashionable.
A decade of effort culminated when this bill was passed. "It was the vital grass-roots support of AOPA that helped to make AIR-21 a reality," Shuster said at a post-passage celebration. "[Members’] efforts played an important part in the passage of this landmark legislation." In fact, it was your overwhelming response that made this important milestone a reality. In all, AIR-21 is a big victory for both general aviation and for your organization.
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