After more than four years of short-term funding, a multiyear aviation bill seems to be finally on its way to passage. Senate and House leaders on Jan. 20 resolved a thorny labor issue that had blocked a multiyear authorization for Federal Aviation Administration programs, including its Airport Improvement Program, or AIP, grants, which fund runways and other projects.

Those programs have been operating under a long series of stopgap bills since September 2007, when the last long-term FAA law expired. The 22nd extension is slated to lapse on Jan. 31.