Aviation International News: U.S. House OKs 14-month FAA Authorization Bill
By Kerry Lynch

The 14-month FAA reauthorization bill moves to the U.S. Senate for consideration after the House late yesterday agreed to the measure by voice vote. The compromise agreement, jointly unveiled last week by the leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Senate Commerce Committee, extends the FAA’s operating authority through Sept. 30, 2017, provides for third-class aeromedical reform and addresses a limited number of other safety and security issues. Absent from the agreement is certification and regulatory reform that had been a key part of earlier long-term proposals, as well as the measure to create an independent organization to run the U.S. air traffic control system.

The House approved the measure just a few days before FAA’s current authority is set to expire on July 15. Lawmakers said the bill is designed to provide stability to the system over the next 14 months while addressing “critical and time-sensitive” provisions. “With this extension in place, Congress can continue to develop a long-term, comprehensive FAA bill that includes many additional reforms and improvements to our aviation system,” said T&I Committee chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.).

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the House aviation subcommittee, agreed that the aviation system will benefit from funding certainty of a 14-month extension, but added, “If not for the futile effort to privatize air traffic control we would have seen a major bipartisan overhaul of our national aviation system. We need to set our sights higher than a series of short-term extensions.”

While general aviation groups have largely opposed Shuster’s push for the user-funded independent ATC organization, the congressman won praise for his support of the third-class medical reform. “Chairman Shuster is a friend to general aviation and has been an outspoken advocate during his career in Congress,” said AOPA president Mark Baker, who had made the medical reform a top priority for the association.

The AOPA statement went further, however, also offering praise for Shuster’s ATC reform efforts and his willingness to work with general aviation on that reform. “The current FAA bureaucracy and the systemic problems associated with managing large-scale capital programs over the years is indefensible and clearly needs substantive reform,” Baker said. “We appreciate Chairman Shuster’s leadership in proposing structural reforms to our current air traffic control system.”

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