FAA Reauthorization Moves Forward

The Senate this week passed legislation to reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs and funding for two years. Included in the legislation is $8.1 billion for the Airport improvement Program (AIP), the primary source of federal funding for airport capital projects, $4 billion in FY 2010 and $4.1 billion in 2011. The program is currently funded at $3.5 billion. The bill would also allow six airports (to be determined in the future) to raise the passenger facility charge (PFC) on airline flights from its current permissible level of $4.50 to $7.00. The House passed a four year authorization in July 2009.  The House bill includes a total of $16.2 billion for AIP grant funding and also allows all airports to increase the PFC from $4.50 to $7.00, which is estimated to generate $1billion per year in additional revenue for airport infrastructure investment. AGC is working in support of allowing the PFC ceiling to increase for all airports to $7.00. The Senate bill will now be sent to the House where it can be accepted as is, amended and sent back to the Senate, or, the most likely outcome, a conference committee would be established to work out the differences in the two bills.  The most recent multi-year authorization of the FAA expired on September 30, 2007. The programs have been operating under a series of short-term extensions, now totaling eleven, since that time.  The current short term extension expires on March 31 and Congress will be in recess for the Easter/Passover break starting next week. Last week, the House passed a bill (H.R. 4853) to extend FAA authorization until July 31, 2010. H.R. 4853 also makes a change in the recently enacted surface transportation extension included in the "Jobs" bill to change the way that $745 million in highway funding under the Projects of National and Regional Significance and Corridor programs will be apportioned to states. This provision enacts an agreement between House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that allowed the "Jobs" bill to move forward in the House.