House Passes 21st FAA Extension

Senate and White House Opposition Could lead to Shutdown of FAA Amid opposition from the White House and the Senate, the House of Representatives passed by a vote of 243-177, the 21^st extension of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding and tax extension bill, which would authorize funding for FAA through September 16.  Unlike previous extensions, this bill is not a “clean” extension; meaning it includes policy changes to current law.  The policy change in question would remove 13 of the 103 airports currently receiving Essential Air Service subsidies from the program, which would likely cause  those airports lose all scheduled air service. Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) objected to the House extension in a letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) “guaranteeing the Senate will reject the FAA extension.”  In addition, the White House has expressed their opposition to the House extension through this Statement of Administration Policy. The Senate has introduced a “clean” extension that would authorize funding for FAA through September 26.   The House and Senate have until midnight Friday to come to a resolution by either agreeing on a “clean” extension or the House-passed bill.  If no agreement can be reached, it would lead to a shutdown of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, starting at midnight on Saturday, furloughing all non essential FAA employees paid out of the Trust Fund (air traffic controllers will be declared essential to public safety and have to work).  A shutdown would also mean that payments of grants by the FAA would stop and the excise taxes on aviation that support the Trust Fund would be repealed. For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@ag.org.