"Florida Airport Relies on FAA Reauthorization Bill"

Monday, August 25, 2003

Editorial
Lakeland Airport Relies on FAA Bill
By Tony Saavedra
The Lakeland (FL) Ledger


Members of the U.S. Congress are poised to vote in early September on
legislation that would provide nearly $60 billion for much-needed
aviation-safety initiatives, security projects and airport grants over the
next four years. Unfortunately, a dispute has arisen over one provision in
the bill, known as the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill.
It could scuttle the measure, to the detriment of the Lakeland Linder
Regional Airport and other airports nationwide.

Our local airport is one of hundreds in the nation that rely on these
federal grants for critical security, safety and capacity enhancement
projects. The FAA reauthorization bill ensures that those grants
materialize, so our airport and our community literally have millions of
dollars at stake in the outcome of the ongoing debate in Washington.

The controversy that threatens to sink the FAA legislation to our
community's disadvantage concerns the highly successful FAA Contract Tower
Program, a program in which our airport participates along with 218 other
general aviation and smaller air carrier airports nationwide. The program,
which the FAA initiated in an effort to reopen towers that were shut
following the controllers' strike in 1981, has been in existence since 1982
and allows the FAA to contract air traffic control services to the private
sector at visual flight rules airports. The program enjoys broad support in
Congress, in communities such as ours that benefit from contract towers, and
with aviation system users.

It is important to note that controllers at FAA Contract Towers are highly
professional, held to the same standards as FAA controllers and certified by
the FAA. The vast majority of controllers at contract facilities are former
military or FAA controllers. The ATC contractors comply with the same safety
regulations as those followed by FAA facilities, with continuous FAA
oversight and inspections.

Given the success of the current program in enhancing safety, efficiency and
saving taxpayer significant dollars, lawmakers have included a provision in
the bill that gives the FAA the option of adding 69 FAA-staffed VFR towers
to the Contract Tower Program, if the agency determines it could be done
safely and efficiently. The White House supports this move as does the
nonpartisan and highly respected inspector general of the Department of
Transportation, Kenneth Mead.

Sadly, some labor groups in Washington have decided that this option is
unacceptable, arguing that it is a veiled attempt by the Bush administration
to privatize more ATC facilities. They have pledged to defeat this important
aviation bill at all costs despite the fact that the HouseSenate conference
report on FAA reauthorization does not privatize the ATC system. That claim
by labor simply is not true. In fact, the agreement actually prohibits the
core of the FAA's ATC facilities, which account for 94 percent of the FAA's
controller workforce, from being privatized or outsourced for the four-year
duration of the bill. FAA controllers have no protection from
privatization/outsourcing efforts, and this bill would change law by
providing protection to the vast majority of these controllers. FAA
Administrator Marion Blakey has said the conference report preserves the
management flexibility the FAA needs and would avoid a White House veto.

With so much at stake for our airport and our community, our elected
officials simply cannot afford to let the labor groups kill this bill. The
Lakeland Linder Regional Airport urges our congressional delegation to move
beyond the rhetoric and vote "yes" for the FAA reauthorization bill, which
will enhance aviation security and safety nationwide. The continued safety,
security and financial stability of our airports are too important to
jeopardize over a provision that simply gives the FAA an option to take
advantage of a program that has worked so well for more than two decades.

Tony Saavedra is air traffic manager for Lakeland Linder Regional Airport.

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