House Vote Nears on 6-Year FAA Bill

Bill would reauthorize FAA airport grants, which help fund projects such as runway rehabilitation (above) at Florida’s Orlando Melbourne International Airport.
PHOTO: COURTESY KMLB ORLANDO MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Legislation to reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration programs, including airport construction grants, is moving again on Capitol Hill. At ENR press time, the House was on the verge of a vote on a six-year bill that would freeze authorizations for Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants at $3.35 billion a year through fiscal 2023.
The bill’s main author, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), proposed an amendment authorizing $5.3 billion over five years for a new airport infrastructure grant program for rural non-hub airports. It was likely to be added to the bill.
Construction officials hoped the House also would add amendments to boost AIP funds and remove the $4.50 cap on passenger facility charges (PFCs), a key construction funding source. It was unclear whether either would be adopted.
An amendment from Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) would raise AIP gradually, to about $4 billion in 2023. Brian Deery, senior director of the Associated General Contractors of America highway and transportation division, says, “Obviously, we’d like to see that [AIP program] boosted up.” He adds, “There’s money in the [aviation] trust fund for it and it’s been flat-level funding for a lot of years.”
If Barletta’s AIP amendment fails, airport grants still will have a banner year. Authorizations are subject to an annual appropriation. AIP’s is $4.3 billion this year, thanks to a $1-billion infusion in the 2018 omnibus spending measure.
An amendment from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), would eliminate the PFC cap, set at $4.50 since 2000. FAA pegs 2017 PFC collections at $3.3 billion.
Industry sees the six-year House measure as a welcome change after three stopgaps since July 2016. The latest extension, enacted March 23 in the omnibus package, lapses Sept. 30.
The Senate Commerce Committee last June cleared a four-year FAA bill with annual AIP hikes, topping out at $3.75 billion. It keeps the $4.50 PFC cap. A Senate aide says, “We’re hoping to have a long-term reauthorization in place by August.” Dave Bauer, American Road & Transportation Builders Association executive vice president, says, “If the House approves a bill, every indication that we’ve heard …from [Hill] leadership and others is that FAA is one of the things that they’re going to do in the remainder of the year.”
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