June 28--The Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport got a piece of good news Thursday regarding funding for tower operations.
The U.S. Contract Tower Association announced that the U.S. House and Senate appropriations committees approved dedicated funding to keep 251 contract towers nationwide open and operational beyond Sept. 30 and through the next fiscal year, which begins this Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30, 2014.
Both committees included dedicated contract tower funding in their respective annual spending bills for the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration for the coming fiscal year.
J. Spencer Dickerson, the contract tower association's executive director, said Thursday that the committees' decision to include contract tower funding in both funding bills "is significant and reaffirms the bipartisan, bicameral view that the Contract Tower Program is a high priority and too important to be targeted for disproportionate funding cuts."
Brownsville's tower is among the nation's 251 contract towers whose controllers are private employees paid through the FAA, but they aren't FAA employees. In March the FAA announced that Brownsville and 148 other contract tower airports around the country would lose federal funding for their controllers' salaries due to budget pressure created by sequestration.
Funding for FAA-operated towers was also impacted by sequestration, though Congress passed a law giving the FAA authority to redirect some of its resources to avoid FAA controller furloughs. The law didn't specifically address the plight of contract towers, however, leaving an atmosphere of uncertainty.
In April, the Department of Transportation announced that contract towers would continue receiving funding through the end of the fiscal year. The latest news means contract towers will receive funding through the end of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2014.
That's good news, said Larry Brown, director of aviation for the Brownsville airport. Now it's just a matter of making sure the transportation bill arrives intact on President Barack Obama's desk for the president's signature, Brown said.
He said intense lobbying by the nation's contract towers apparently got the attention of the nation's lawmakers. Brown said he's ready to join the fight again if it becomes an issue after the next fiscal year. After all, sequestration is supposed to last 10 years, he noted.
"We'll keep our ear to the rail and listen," Brown said. "We'll see what happens and prepare to react."
Copyright 2013 - The Brownsville Herald, Texas
