On Aviation Reauthorization, or ...

... why is it that the most powerful legislative body on the planet can be so impotent? Of course, much of it has to do with living in the current age of politics by division, or derision. The greatest fear of lobbyists has been realized: We are entering a presidential election year with no aviation bill on the table. Who’s to blame for this debacle? I guess it has to be the party that controls the Congress, the Democrats -- the aviation bill is not the only spending bill being held up. But then, it was a Republican-controlled Congress that failed for years to pass legislation to fund the explosives detection systems called for in legislation after 9/11. (It seems that issue is finally behind us.) Of course, the aviation industry itself, as in years past, continues to convey a disjointed message to Washington. Light aircraft owners resist change, argue they have little impact on the system, and have a powerful lobbying group in AOPA that has a good track record of taking its grassroots message to legislators. Business aviation, too, argues that it has minimal impact on the system while having as its constituency people who make a significant impact on the nation’s communities. And there are the airlines, which don’t want to pay for anything and want general aviation to help pay the bill for a system that was really created for them. At the end of the day, industry in-fighting merely sends a disjoined message, not only to Congress but to voters as well. Just look at the debate over air traffic control modernization – some in aviation say that ATC is nearing a system-wide breakdown; others argue it’s not broken and we continue to operate the largest and safest system in the world. And, about the time we all think we know who the players are and their positions, Senate minority leader Trent Lott, a major player with the Senate’s aviation bill that hasn’t passed, announces his resignation. It is indeed a sad state of affairs. Thanks for reading. jfi