Officials Claim FAA Funding Can Handle Upgrades

The Federal Aviation Administration probably has enough money to begin transitioning to a new air traffic control system without altering its funding scheme, two government analysts testified Wednesday.

"The current funding system is able to provide enough revenues to support FAA's activities, including the early development of" air traffic control modernization, said Gerald Dillingham of the Government Accountability Office at a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee. Calvin L. Scovel, the Transportation Department's inspector general, agreed.

Their testimony stands in stark contrast to the FAA's position, which says the current mix of excise taxes and appropriated dollars will not meet future needs, including the transition to a satellite-based air traffic control system over the next few decades.

The administration has proposed legislation (HR 1356) that would eliminate the tax on the price of a plane ticket and replace it with a fee levied on airlines based on a plane's size in addition to other factors. The measure also would reduce jet fuel taxes for commercial airlines by almost half, to 13 cents a gallon. The industry has long sought both changes from Congress.

But general aviation would see its fuel taxes almost triple to 70 cents per gallon, and that portion of the industry would have a number of "transactional" user fees instituted or raised.

The commercial airline industry largely supports the changes, arguing that it bears an unfair financing burden when compared with general aviation airplanes that also use the air traffic control system. General aviation interests counter that the administration's proposal is little more than corporate welfare for big airlines.

Although Dillingham and Scovel said the current system would provide enough money to meet the FAA's future needs, they agreed that it is not as equitable as it could be with regard to linking cost to actual usage.

Dillingham said enacting the FAA's proposal "is not necessary to provide more money to FAA, but it does address some of the concerns that FAA and other stakeholders have raised" with revenue equity.

The witnesses also expressed concern about the FAA's history of delays and cost overruns on large acquisition projects.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle remained largely skeptical of the FAA's proposal, including full committee Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn.,and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jerry F. Costello, D-Ill.

"I think these schemes that have come up to us in this proposal are risky; they will unbalance our system," Oberstar said. "I'm unpersuaded. I've been through these schemes for 25 years, and I just think you're off on the wrong track."

Democrats have said they will draft their own FAA reauthorization bill. The agency's current authorization (PL 108-176) will expire at the end of September.

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