The Senate reached a compromise last night - the Senate passed the 22nd extension of the FAA bill 92- 6. This extension will run through January. It is good that the FAA won't shut down and it is positive that the extension is longer than previous ones. But it is still and extension - not a long term multi - year plan that is needed. GBTA will continue it's push for a long term FAA bill in every meeting with Representatives and Senators.
Link to Politico article on the deal
Friday, September 16, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Feeling optimistic about FAA
Good afternoon
I just returned from lunch with a U.S. Senator - the feeling is a solution to the FAA/Transit extension will be reached and that the FAA won't be shutdown on Friday.
I just returned from lunch with a U.S. Senator - the feeling is a solution to the FAA/Transit extension will be reached and that the FAA won't be shutdown on Friday.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Senate still debating FAA
Senate procedural snarl could shutdown FAA again
7:00 pm est 9/14/2011
(AP) WASHINGTON — A single Republican senator's objections plus a procedural snarl could force another partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration at the end of this week, potentially putting thousands of workers out of jobs and depriving the government of $30 million a day in uncollected airline ticket taxes.
Senate rules don't allow lawmakers to shift from the bill they're currently working on, a disaster aid bill, to a stop-gap funding measure for the FAA and highway programs without the consent of all lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is refusing to give his consent. Coburn wants to change the stopgap transportation bill that the House passed on Tuesday by eliminating highway program spending on bike paths, beautification projects and other so-called transportation enhancements.
Without directly naming Coburn, Reid effective accused the GOP senator of acting like a "dictator" by insisting the rest of the Senate accept his amendment.
"It's a pretty good way to legislate around here, be a dictator and say either take this or leave it," Reid said. "I'm convinced his issue would lose overwhelmingly. But he's holding this legislation up, and we are in a position now legislatively that I can't get ... to this bill prior to Friday, when the FAA expires."
Republicans say the Senate could have passed the transportation bill in time if Reid hadn't brought up the disaster aid bill first. Because Coburn and several other GOP senators also opposed bringing up that measure, Reid on Tuesday set in motion parliamentary procedures that would allow the Senate to pass the disaster aid bill by Saturday.
Democrats are negotiating with Coburn, with Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., acting as a go-between.
John Hart, a spokesman for Coburn, said earlier this week that the senator "believes we need to prioritize bridge repair over bike paths and will use procedural tools at his disposal to strip the enhancement requirements from the bill." He declined Wednesday to elaborate on the senator's position.
A partisan standoff between House Republicans and Senate Democrats forced the FAA to partially shut down for two weeks this summer. Nearly 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed and more than 200 airport construction and safety projects halted, affecting tens of thousands of other workers. The government lost nearly $400 million in airline ticket taxes because airlines no longer had authority to collect the fees.
Without congressional action, the FAA would face another partial shutdown on Friday, when its current operating authority expires. Authority for highway, transit and rail programs, as well as the federal gasoline and diesel taxes that provide the largest share of funding for the programs, are due to expire on Sept. 30.
Long-term funding for the FAA expired in 2007 and highway programs in 2009. Both programs have been continued through a series of short-term extensions. The latest bill would be FAA's 21st extension and the highway program's eighth.
(AP) WASHINGTON — A single Republican senator's objections plus a procedural snarl could force another partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration at the end of this week, potentially putting thousands of workers out of jobs and depriving the government of $30 million a day in uncollected airline ticket taxes.
Senate rules don't allow lawmakers to shift from the bill they're currently working on, a disaster aid bill, to a stop-gap funding measure for the FAA and highway programs without the consent of all lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is refusing to give his consent. Coburn wants to change the stopgap transportation bill that the House passed on Tuesday by eliminating highway program spending on bike paths, beautification projects and other so-called transportation enhancements.
Without directly naming Coburn, Reid effective accused the GOP senator of acting like a "dictator" by insisting the rest of the Senate accept his amendment.
"It's a pretty good way to legislate around here, be a dictator and say either take this or leave it," Reid said. "I'm convinced his issue would lose overwhelmingly. But he's holding this legislation up, and we are in a position now legislatively that I can't get ... to this bill prior to Friday, when the FAA expires."
Republicans say the Senate could have passed the transportation bill in time if Reid hadn't brought up the disaster aid bill first. Because Coburn and several other GOP senators also opposed bringing up that measure, Reid on Tuesday set in motion parliamentary procedures that would allow the Senate to pass the disaster aid bill by Saturday.
Democrats are negotiating with Coburn, with Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., acting as a go-between.
John Hart, a spokesman for Coburn, said earlier this week that the senator "believes we need to prioritize bridge repair over bike paths and will use procedural tools at his disposal to strip the enhancement requirements from the bill." He declined Wednesday to elaborate on the senator's position.
A partisan standoff between House Republicans and Senate Democrats forced the FAA to partially shut down for two weeks this summer. Nearly 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed and more than 200 airport construction and safety projects halted, affecting tens of thousands of other workers. The government lost nearly $400 million in airline ticket taxes because airlines no longer had authority to collect the fees.
Without congressional action, the FAA would face another partial shutdown on Friday, when its current operating authority expires. Authority for highway, transit and rail programs, as well as the federal gasoline and diesel taxes that provide the largest share of funding for the programs, are due to expire on Sept. 30.
Long-term funding for the FAA expired in 2007 and highway programs in 2009. Both programs have been continued through a series of short-term extensions. The latest bill would be FAA's 21st extension and the highway program's eighth.
Senator Coburn vows to block FAA and Transit Extension
The House has passed an extension for the FAA and Highway bill through the end of the year – but Senator Coburn has vowed to use “all procedural tools at his disposal” to block the bill because he objected to programs designed to increase bike lanes and green space around roads. – seriously…
The current bill funding the FAA expires Friday, while the current version of the highway bill was scheduled to run through Sept. 30.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
House passes extension through end of year
The House on Tuesday voted to extend funding for the Federal Aviation Administration and the funding mechanism for highways, bridges, and railways, putting off the hard negotiations on infrastructure investment until next year. The Senate is expected to pass the same bill later this week, laying to rest fears from many in the transportation community that funding for either aviation or surface transportation would lapse and force another partial shutdown of the FAA or halt the revenues to the highway trust fund.
The extensions are causing some consternation in conservative circles. The Heritage Foundation urged Republicans to vote against the proposal because it sets surface-transportation spending (at current levels) well above the House Republican budget agreed to earlier this year. Despite that, the bill passed on a voice vote.
The FAA’s current spending authority expires on Friday. The surface-transportation authorization expires on Sept. 30. The six-month surface-transportation extension will retain the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax to continue past Sept. 30. That revenue allows the highway trust fund to remain solvent. Lawmakers say they will work out their differences on a longer-term highway bill in the interim.
The Senate and House both have unveiled outlines of surface-transportation legislation, but they are far apart on the specifics. House Republicans are proposing a six-year, $230 billion bill that cuts infrastructure spending by one-third. The cuts have met with resistance from Democrats and the business community, who say the country can’t afford to skimp on roads and bridges. In part because House Republicans’ budget constraints force dramatic spending cuts in transportation, Senate Republicans and Democrats are proposing a two-year, $109 billion bill that retains current spending levels.
The FAA, meanwhile, already has been the subject of hostile debate when House Republicans this summer tried to force Senate Democrats to accept policy changes to the aviation program on the previous stopgap funding measure. Senate leaders refused, and the standoff led to a two-week partial shutdown of the FAA, thousands of furloughed government workers, and some $400 million in lost tax revenue from airline-ticket sales.
Members of Congress also took some public-relations heat for the debacle. House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., was labeled a “job killer” by union protestors over the August break, and Republicans railed against Senate Democrats for being unwilling to negotiate on a number of outstanding provisions.
Mica took the House floor on Tuesday to say the four-month extension of the FAA would give lawmakers time to work out their differences. “This is the 22nd extension, and I can guarantee it will be the last extension because we must and we will pass a four-year authorization,” he said.
Monday, September 12, 2011
FAA and Highway auths extended through year
1. GO ALONG, GET ALONG. A looming battle over two stop-gap measures affecting the Federal Aviation Administration and the nation’s surface transportation laws ended quietly over the weekend with agreements reached by congressional leaders to extend the laws. The FAA extension runs through Jan. 31, 2012 and the transportation bill through March 31, 2012. The legislation also extends the Department of Transportation’s ability to collect gas taxes for the Highway Trust Fund through March 31. The House will consider the bills in tandem this week. FAA authorization expires Friday, and transportation funding and financing expire Sept. 30. The clean extensions leave for another day battles over aviation and rail unions, and controversial subsidies for rural airports, which had previously delayed the FAA bill.
From National Journal 9/12/2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
FAA extension proposal through end of the year
3:30 pm 9/9/11 - House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., had planned to introduce the bill on Friday, but last-minute discussions over its provisions delayed the introduction. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said that the House will pass an extension next week, but he didn't offer further details.
10:30 am 9/9/11 Latest news from the the National Journal
House Republicans are unveiling another funding extension for the Federal Aviation Administration as early as Friday, this time to Dec. 31, that also includes back pay for federal workers who were furloughed for two weeks in August when lawmakers failed to extend the agency’s funding.
The measure also includes minor cuts to the funding levels of FAA, consistent with agreed-upon deficit reduction agreements and House appropriators’ funding levels. The overall authorization levels reflect roughly a 5 percent reduction from current level, according to congressional and lobbying sources.
The FAA stopgap, which the House will consider next week, is far less incendiary than the last bill introduced by House transportation committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., which angered the Senate because it included provisions to cut subsidies to rural airports. Mica admits he included the policy language as leverage to force the House and Senate to begin hammering out their differences on a longer-term FAA bill. The battle that ensued wound up making all of Congress look bad when the standoff forced a partial shutdown; federal workers were furloughed and the Treasury lost some $400 million in tax receipts from airline ticket sales.
This time (the extension would be No. 22), Mica is trying to make amends to the furloughed workers by including a bill sponsored by Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., to make those workers whole. The current extension expires on Friday, Sept. 16.
Early indications are that the measure could pass the Senate without too much difficulty, averting another partial shutdown of the FAA.
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