AIR-21 Successor Signed, but Appropriations Mess Stalls Airport Grants
New federal airport construction grants remain on hold, despite the enactment of a $60-billion bill reauthorizing Federal Aviation Administration programs for the next four years. The reason for the delay in new Airport Improvement Program grant awards is that Congress hasn't yet passed a fiscal 2004 appropriations bill for the Dept. of Transportation, FAA's federal parent. Spending for DOT is tied up in an omnibus appropriations package, which is stuck in Congress over a variety of issues.
FAA had not cleared any AIP grants for fiscal 2004, well over a week after President Bush signed into law the four-year "Vision 100--Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act." The new statute, enacted Dec. 12, commemorates the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight, and is the successor to "AIR-21," the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act of 2000.