Guest editorial: The case for reform

During the last Congress, the House and Senate passed multiple bills to improve the nation’s transportation network. This year, Congress will consider a critical FAA reform and reauthorization bill.

Reforming the FAA is essential to advancing our aviation system into the modern era. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s FAA bill from 2016—the Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization (AIRR) Act—provided important reforms such as cutting the red tape in the certification process and addressing inconsistent regulatory oversight by the FAA. Another vital AIRR Act reform would separate the provision of air traffic services from the safety regulator.

Anyone who has dealt with the FAA knows it is a massive bureaucracy that controls the airspace using 1950s technology. In the latest modernization effort, NextGen, the FAA has spent more than $7 billion with little to show for it. Now is the time to bring the FAA and America’s air traffic services into the twenty-first century. The AIRR Act put the FAA’s focus where it belongs—on safety, certification, and oversight—and included important reforms to those processes. Additionally, it envisioned an independent, not-for-profit entity to provide and modernize air traffic services.

While separating air traffic services from the safety regulator is commonplace and a best practice worldwide, our reform proposal is uniquely American to represent our diverse aviation community.

In developing this legislation, the committee worked with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, and we will continue to work with aviation system users to improve the proposal in 2017. I have and will continue to work with AOPA leadership to develop an even stronger proposal in this Congress. General aviation is critical to our economy and must be given every opportunity to thrive—not be bogged down by bureaucracy and out-of-touch policies. As we prepare to work on an FAA reauthorization bill this year, it is important that AOPA members understand that protecting America’s vital GA community and heritage has been and will remain a top priority of mine.

Unfortunately, opponents of reform are perpetuating certain myths about our proposal. I would like to set the record straight.

First, I want to be clear the AIRR Act continued the decades-old policy of piston aircraft operations and noncommercial turbine aircraft operations paying into the system exactly as they do now, through fuel taxes. The AIRR Act clearly prohibited any new air traffic service entity from charging user fees on these types of operations. Our goal is to ensure that everyone pays their fair share, and we are open to working with willing partners to achieve this goal and strike the right balance.

Furthermore, GA access to the National Airspace System (NAS) will never be limited under my watch. Some have claimed that our proposal would turn the airspace over to a private company, or even “the airlines.” This could not be further from the truth. The NAS belongs to the American people, and always will. The FAA would continue to regulate the airspace and be held accountable.

In addition, the not-for-profit we would establish will be governed by a board nominated by the users of the aviation system, and empowered to make the right decisions for the safe and efficient provision of air traffic services, rather than a group of Washington bureaucrats who may not have any aviation experience. The GA community will be prominently represented.

A final myth is that reform would harm rural air service. I am from and represent rural Pennsylvania. I know how important aviation is to small communities, and I will not promote policies that will harm rural air service. Getting government bureaucracy out of procurement and technology decisions will allow faster deployment of new technologies, such as remote towers. This would help improve service in the remotest areas while increasing safety and efficiency. The Federal Contract Tower Program is also continued and improved under our proposal.

As we advance the FAA reform bill, I invite input from all stakeholders and look forward to working with the entire aviation community to ensure that American aviation continues to lead the world and does not lose its pioneering spirit.