CAA: Legislative Update, "FY02 Transportation Appropriations Bill"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Friday, June 8, 2001

FY02 Transportation Appropriations Bill
AAAE/ACI-NA


The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation is scheduled to
markup to the Fiscal Year 2002 (FY02) Transportation Appropriations bill on
Tuesday, June 12. The AAAE/ACI-NA Legislative Affairs Department have been
spending a great deal of time on Capitol Hill in recent weeks discussing the
bill and our legislative priorities with Members of Congress and their
staff. The following includes: 1) an update on the FY02 Transportation
Appropriations bill; and 2) a brief description of H.R. 2107, the End
Gridlock at Our Nation's Critical Airports Act of 2001, which was introduced
yesterday.

FY02 Transportation Appropriations Bill

Not surprisingly, we have been busy pushing for $3.3 billion for the Airport
Improvement Program and $2.914 billion for the Facilities and Equipment
account. These are the same amounts that were authorized in H.R. 1000, the
Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century
(AIR-21), which was enacted into law last year. From our conversations with
Members of Congress and their staff, we have good reason to believe that the
House version of the FY02 Transportation Appropriations bill will include
full funding for both.

We have also been making the case that Congress should consider the needs of
small communities and: 1) appropriate $27.5 million for the Small Community
Air Service Development Pilot Program -- the same amount that was authorized
in AIR-21; 2) increase funding for the Essential Air Service (EAS) Program
by $15 million, which was also authorized in AIR-21; and 3) provide $70.5
million for the regular Contract Tower Program and $6 million for the
Contract Tower Cost-Sharing Program.

The House has not been particularly supportive of the Small Community Air
Service Development Pilot Program and EAS, and we knew early on that
obtaining full funding for the former and an increase in funding for the
latter would be difficult. As we have reported in the past, the
Administration's FY02 Budget Request did not include any funds for the Small
Community Air Service Development Pilot Program and proposed to eliminate 18
communities from the EAS program.

Despite the long odds, we are cautiously optimistic that the House version
of the bill will include the full $27.5 million for the Small Community Air
Service Development Pilot Program. We are far from certain the bill will
include funds for the program, but we have received encouraging words from
our contacts on Capitol Hill. We are also hopeful that the Subcommittee will
include our requested funding levels for the contract tower program.
However, obtaining increased funding for EAS continues to be an uphill
battle.

We have also been urging Congress to include in the FY02 Transportation
Appropriations bill a general provision that would prohibit the FAA from
implementing its cost-free space proposal and $500,000 for a study to
evaluate the effectiveness of current research in aircraft noise reduction
technology. We will have more to report about those two items and our
proposals to increase funding for the FAA to review and approve key airport
capacity projects and to allow airports to provide funds to the FAA to hire
additional, project-specific staff and/or consultants to supervise and
implement reviews of critical airport capacity projects.

Finally, we are also preparing for the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on
Transportation to consider its version of the FY02 Transportation
Appropriations bill. We met today with Peter Rogoff, the Democratic Clerk of
the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation today. Although he
couldn't commit to much -- including the funding level for AIP -- because
his Subcommittee has not yet received its allocation, he, too, made some
encouraging comments about the Small Community Air Service Development Pilot
Program and mentioned that Several Democratic Senators and staff have
contacted his office about it.

H.R. 2107, the End Gridlock at Our Nation's Critical Airports Act of 2001

Yesterday, Representative Bill Lipinski (D-IL), the Ranking Member of the
House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation, introduced
H.R. 2107, the End Gridlock at Our Nation's Critical Airports Act of 2001.
Citing the need for additional runways throughout the national aviation
system, Lipinski stated that "new runways are the key to ending delays and
congestion and adding to our capacity." The text of the bill can be viewed
at: http://www.house.gov/lipinski/oharegridlock2.pdf. Rep. Lipinski's full
remarks can be read at:
http://www.airportnet.org/depts/Federal/legis107/lipinskiremarks.htm.

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