By Kevin McCarty
August 1, 2011

Unable to conclude House and Senate negotiations on multi-year legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Congressional leaders in the House let their disagreements on a few issues with the Senate spill over and contaminate the longstanding Congressional practice of providing timely extensions of the FAA law. As a result, Congress last month failed to pass an extension bill, allowing the FAA authorization to expire as of July 23.

Due to this impasse, airport construction projects throughout the U.S. have been suspended, nearly 4,000 FAA workers have been furloughed and needed agency reviews, approvals and certifications on pending grants agreements, ready-to-go capital projects and other activities will be delayed into the future. (As U.S.Mayor goes to press this week, the Congressional stalemate continues, with no end in sight.)

The last time Congress enacted a FAA authorization bill was December 2003, when “Vision 100—Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act” provided program authorizations through September 30, 2007. Since that time, Congress routinely provided for timely extensions of the law, acting on a bipartisan basis on twenty separate occasions.

Conference Leaders Speak Out

Conference of Mayors President Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, along with other mayors and leaders, are speaking out about the local and national impacts of this lapse, urging Congress to act promptly on a simple FAA extension bill.

“Important modernization and airport improvement projects currently underway, like the one at LAX, are creating jobs and helping our economic recovery; we cannot allow them to stall. Our airports are not only our most important resources for moving goods and people, they are critical to creating jobs and putting Americans back to work. Ultimately, we need a long-term plan that reflects the importance of our airports not just as travel hubs, but as economic engines,” Villaraigosa said.

“The failure of Congress to pass a Federal Aviation Administration bill on [July 22] means that cities across the nation will bear a significant economic burden,” said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, chair of the Conference of Mayors Transportation and Communications Committee. “It is vital to our economy; it is vital to the thousands of middle-class families who will see paychecks stop; and it is vital for the efficacy of our transportation system. Hartsfield-Jackson is the busiest passenger airport in the world. We cannot afford to wait – Congress needs to do its job, come back to Washington and pass an FAA bill,” Reed said.

In his statement, Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran said, “This senseless disruption to the nation’s economy comes on the heels of a bi-partisan leadership meeting of The United States Conference of Mayors last week, where 50 mayors unanimously resolved that Washington move promptly to act on the debt ceiling, continue to make progress on deficit reduction strategies, and act immediately on job-producing measures, like increased infrastructure investment.” He continued, “We urge Washington to reconsider and act now on a simple extension of FAA’s programs and authorities as they have done so many times before.”

As the employment and other economic costs due to the expiration continue to mount, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation recently said, “This is no way to run the best aviation system in the world.” FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt recently warned that “Unless Congress acts quickly, more work on projects critical to our nation’s aviation system will come to a halt.”

Unlike the debate on the debt ceiling and its date certain for action, the only deadline for the FAA renewal, if it is one at all, is when the 112th Congress adjourns later next year; failing to meet this deadline means the 113th Congress would have to originate new legislation and restart the process on FAA reauthorization legislation.

Up until June, Congressional transportation leaders and staff were meeting to reach agreement on a multi-year authorization (H.R. 658; S. 223), as some issues proved controversial and remained unresolved. House leaders elected to bring a couple of these contested issues into the debate on the extension legislation, overturning the bipartisan and bicameral practice that had produced twenty non-controversial, short-term extensions, dating back to September 29, 2007.