House passes bill for $63 billion in FAA funding, including nearly $11 billion for NextGen

Feb. 04--A bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday authorizes $63 billion for Federal Aviation Administration programs through the 2015 federal budget year. The bill includes nearly $11 billion for FAA facilities and equipment nationally to accelerate the implementation of NextGen.

Final Senate action is expected Monday, the culmination of a five-year struggle that included a partial shutdown of the FAA last summer. The bill passed the House by a 248-169 vote.

U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, applauded the bill. He said the reauthorization would prevent a repeat of last summer's national partial FAA shutdown that temporarily put 650 people out of work at the William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center in Egg Harbor Township.

"This bill reaffirms the exceptional work being conducted at the Tech Center to modernize the nation's antiquated air traffic control system," he said in a statement, "and will ensure reliable funding," so that substantial work on NextGen can be completed.

He and other lawmakers said the legislation would provide certainty and stability to programs that are critical to the health of the commercial aviation industry, which accounts for about 5 percent of U.S. economic output.

That stability is also important for the FAA's NextGen program, a transition from an air traffic control system based on ground radar to a system based on GPS technology. The system is central to the FAA's plans for accommodating a forecast 50 percent growth in air traffic over the next decade.

Ronald J. Esposito, executive director of the Next Generation Aviation Research and Technology Park in Egg Harbor Township, called the vote "really great news." The bill complements the work on the NextGen project, he said, and said it shows that lawmakers support the work being done at the center.

The local NextGen park has been stalled. Construction has yet to commence on the seven-building project first announced in October 2005. Tenants also have yet to be secured.

The bill passed Friday also directs the secretary of transportation to give priority to NextGen-specific projects and establishes planning guidelines for bringing NextGen technology online. In a move that shows the increased priority of the project, the bill also creates a chief NextGen officer, who will report to directly to the FAA administrator.

The bill establishes a "center of excellence" for the NextGen project and gives the FAA administrator the ability to establish a center at the Hughes center. The center of excellence program brings together academic, aviation and governmental experts for research and development.

Federal officials have said the future of air traffic control is the development of new arrival procedures for planes using the more-precise GPS navigation. Instead of time-consuming, fuel-burning stair-step descents, planes will be able to glide in more steeply with their engines idling. Aircraft will be able to land and take off closer together and more frequently, even in poor weather, because pilots will know the precise location of other aircraft and obstacles on the ground. Fewer planes will be diverted, officials say.

New procedures for the nation's 35 busiest airports will have to be completed by June 2015.

Democrats had also wanted to enshrine certain passenger rights -- such as not having to sit on a tarmac for more than three hours -- but opponents successfully argued the goals had been met through regulation.

Long-term authority for the FAA expired in 2007 and the agency has limped along under 23 short-term extensions, partly because legislation providing for its funding became a convenient vehicle for labor-related provisions sought by airlines or unions.

Five years ago, bitter contract negotiations between the FAA and air traffic controllers were an issue. In the last Congress, a fight between United Parcel Service and FedEx over whether FedEx workers should have to operate under the same labor rules as UPS helped hold up the bill.

This time around, a Republican-drafted bill that cleared the House last spring included a provision that would have overturned a National Mediation Board ruling allowing airline and railroad employees to form a union by a simple majority of those voting. Under the old rule, workers who didn't vote were treated as "no" votes.

Regarding an additional issue that pitted labor against industry, the bill effectively blocks the Department of Transportation from issuing regulations that would require air shipments of lithium batteries to be treated as hazardous cargo. Instead, the bill requires the U.S. to follow the shipping regulations set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency.

The batteries -- which are used in cellphones, laptops, watches and many other products -- can ignite if damaged, are overheated or packaged incorrectly. Fires caused by the batteries can burn as hot as 4,000 degrees and are difficult to put out.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 - The Press of Atlantic City, Pleasantville, N.J.