Fate of FAA caught in partisan stalemate over funding

WASHINGTON — With the 20th stopgap funding extension for the nation's aviation system about to expire, the congressional stalemate over a multibillion-dollar, long-term funding bill has turned into a strikingly nasty squabble.

If it isn't resolved this week, the Federal Aviation Administration may face a shutdown after Friday. Air traffic controllers would remain on the job, but the FAA would not be able to collect ticket-tax revenue that support the system and nonessential employees might face furloughs.

"Summer is the busiest travel time of the year," said former FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, now president of the Aerospace Industries Association. "No one wants to see the FAA turned upside down, especially now."

A Republican-sponsored bill to extend FAA operating authority through Sept. 16 was approved Wednesday by the House by a 243-177 vote mostly along party lines.

Senate Democrats have warned that the House bill is unacceptable because Republicans added a provision eliminating about $8.5 million in subsidies for airline service to 13 rural communities in 10 states.

At the root of the quarrel is a dispute over union organizing by airline and railroad workers, as well as federal subsidies for flights to rural airports and the number of flights that should be allowed at Washington's Reagan National Airport.

The FAA's current authority expires at midnight Friday. Most immediately affected by a shutdown would be FAA programs paid for with airline-ticket taxes. Airlines would have to stop collecting federal ticket taxes, although they would continue to collect airport fees.

Air traffic controllers, deemed essential safety personnel, would stay on the job. But airport construction grants and FAA's implementation of a new air traffic control system based on GPS technology would halt.The Essential Air Service (EAS) program, which spends about $163 million a year to subsidize flights to 109 small towns, was created in 1978 when airline deregulation raised fears that commercial service to rural areas could end.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, targeted it in the House spending proposal, and he has included a provision in the FAA extension bill this week that would eliminate EAS subsidies to 13 airports that are within 90 miles of a larger airport.

Three of those airports are in home states of Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.; Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and Max Baucus, D-Mont.

The House bill also seeks to undo a ruling by the National Mediation Board approved last year that allows airline and railroad employees to form a union by a simple majority of those voting. Under the old rule, workers who didn't vote were treated as "no" votes.

Senate Democrats have insisted that repeal of the mediation-board rule be removed from any final bill.

Rockefeller accused Mica of including the rural airport provision in the extension bill in retaliation for the Senate's refusal to accept the labor provision.

Mica didn't deny that, saying it was a message to the Senate that "we want this finally resolved."

The number of flights that should be allowed at National has long been a source of friction between members of Congress from the Washington region, who are concerned about noise and the region's two other major airports, and their colleagues from distant states, who want more direct flights home.

Congress has been trying to pass a long-term FAA funding bill since 2007, when the last long-term bill expired. The Senate approved a long-term funding bill in February. The House OK'd its version in April.

The uncertainty of continuing to fund aviation at 2007 levels could stall airport expansions and slow progress on a $40 billion air traffic system expected to revolutionize air travel.

"The lack of long-term funding causes real damage to airport improvement projects, capital programs and certification of industry products, which provide jobs and promote economic activity," said Bobby Sturgell, former acting administrator at the FAA and now a vice president at aviation supplier Rockwell Collins.

The White House on Wednesday denounced the House bill because it "includes controversial provisions that, because they have not been negotiated, needlessly threaten critical FAA programs and jeopardize thousands of public- and private-sector jobs."