Senator pushes temporary extension of FAA authorization

Legislation introduced in the Senate on Tuesday would extend airport construction and security funding for half a year, allowing lawmakers time to rethink a compromise version of the 2003 Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that leaves some air traffic controllers vulnerable to job competitions.

Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced the temporary FAA reauthorization legislation so that Congress would not feel rushed to pass the permanent four-year, $60 billion reauthorization bill before Oct. 1, when funding for key aviation projects runs out. Rockefeller's extension would provide $1.7 billion for airport improvement projects and an additional $5.5 billion for salaries, facilities and security programs.

These funds, which last until March 31, 2004, will allow the FAA to continue its "core" work while lawmakers resolve disagreements on issues such as the potential outsourcing of air traffic control jobs, Rockefeller said.

A Senate-passed version of the permanent FAA reauthorization bill protected air traffic control jobs from public-private competitions, but negotiators tossed out these protections in a late July conference report.

Language approved by negotiators would bar the FAA from subjecting air traffic controllers to competition until 2008, but would exempt 69 low- and medium-activity towers, with a total of approximately 1,000 employees, from the ban. Conferees agreed to the report after hasty negotiations that left Democrats little room to add amendments, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., said at a press event in August.

Both Lautenberg and Oberstar vowed to fight against the conference version of the bill.

Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young , R-Fla., chair of the House Appropriations Committee, objects to the conference report as well, but for different reasons. Young believes appropriators, and not authorizers, should have jurisdiction over some of the issues addressed in the permanent reauthorization bill, according to Jim Berard, a spokesman for the minority side of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Between lawmakers sharing Young's concerns, and those worried about potential air traffic control privatization, the House is unlikely to pass the conference report, Berard predicted. This could be one reason the House took the bill off its floor schedule last week, he said, though he noted that he is not involved in scheduling. The House has also been pressed for time to get business done, he added.

"While I would like to have seen Congress pass a comprehensive multi-year bill, it is not going to be possible by the end of this fiscal year," Rockefeller said. "The most significant reason that the multi-year FAA bill is stalled is because the conference report includes language that allows a large part of the nation's air traffic control system to be contracted out to private operators."

Rockefeller said that the Senate voted 56-to-41 to keep air traffic control within the government "out of a deep sense that the safety of our skies is a basic governmental function." Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were concerned about the potential outsourcing of air traffic control functions, he added.

Conferees bowed to the Bush administration's threat to veto a bill containing language protecting the federal controller jobs, Rockefeller claimed. "Instead of negotiating in good faith over how to best control the safety of our nation's air traffic control system, the majority acceded to the administration's demand that they be given absolute discretion over the future of aviation safety."

Both Rockefeller and Lautenberg dismissed Bush's veto threat as political rhetoric, noting that the economic and national security consequences of allowing the aviation program to lapse are too great. "The White House says lots of things they do not do," Rockefeller said.

Rockefeller and Lautenberg predicted that the temporary reauthorization measure would pass the Senate. But Sens. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and John McCain, R-Ariz., said they would oppose any short-term extension while they move forward with their plans to complete work on the full four-year bill.

"I'd be opposed to one," Lott said Tuesday, calling Democratic opposition to the conference package "pretty irresponsible." Although Lott does not support the administration's position on privatization, he said he does not believe the issue should derail the entire bill.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is pleased that Rockefeller's temporary measure would buy lawmakers some time to send the controversial conference report back to the drawing board, according to Doug Church, the group's spokesman.

"We must not allow the Bush administration to blackmail the Senate and House with airport shutdowns and furloughs only to pursue a political ideology," NATCA President John Carr said in a statement.

John Stanton of CongressDaily contributed to this report.