The reauthorization bill that funds the Federal Aviation Administration contains largely positive elements for the airports industry, including a long-sought funding increase, according to Annie Russo, chief political and Congressional strategy officer for Airports Council International-North America.
Speaking at the ACI-NA Business of Airports Conference, Russo noted Monday that the draft bills in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives would increase funding for the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program for the first time in 20 years. Both bills call for an increase to $4 billion annually.
Russo said it’s a big achievement. “It has been stuck level funded at $3.3 billion for over 20 years, and it’s going up to $4 billion. I know in the grand scheme it’s not a lot of money,” she said, but notes the current contentiousness in Washington DC, “especially on the House side, where they’re looking at cutting every federal program.”
The House bill also includes some changes that the industry is asking for, Russo added. “In addition, …they’re expanding eligibility in that bill for AIP – expanding it into terminals and for revenue producing areas, which is significant and has widespread impact across what airports can and can’t fund,” Russo said. The Senate bill takes a different approach but is generally positive, Russo notes. Other elements of interest to the industry include funding for firefighting and changes in grant assurances for fixed-base operators, which Russo said is viewed by ACI-NA as a negative.
The House bill also addresses some land use issues that have re-emerged. “In 2018, we were successful in getting a provision in the bill that we thought at the time would keep FAA out of development of lands that were non-aeronautical, not bought with federal funding that clearly would never have an aeronautical purpose,” Russo noted. “We thought the language was very clear cut. Quite frankly, FAA has disagreed with that. FAA hasn’t done what Congress intended for them to do, so we had to go back to Congress and ask for them to clarify the language from 2018. They have done a really good job, we think, of providing that clarity in the House bill.”
The House bill is expected to be brought to the floor in mid-July. On the Senate side, the bill needs to be marked up before being brought to the floor, and no clear timeline has emerged, Russo said.
The current funding for FAA expires on September 20. Russo said she expects an extension but “I think that there’s a lot of optimism that something can happen before the end of the calendar year and we see a long-term bill.
“I think the work over the last few years has really paid off in the airport industry, and our partners telling that story has really paid off,” she added. “I’m very hopeful that we get [a final bill] this calendar year, and that will really set the airport industry on the right path for decades to come.”
