A controversial provision that would have privatized the nation’s air traffic control system has been dropped.
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Friday on a five-year reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration that does not include a controversial provision that would have privatized the nation’s air traffic control system.
Passed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (H.R. 4) would reauthorize the administration through 2023.
According to co-sponsors Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chair of the House T&I Committee; Ranking Member Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.; Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J.; and Aviation Subcommittee Ranking Member Rick Larsen, D-Wash., the bill puts an emphasis on supporting the development of new aviation technologies and airport infrastructure.
The reauthorization would carve out between $10.23 billion and $11.33 billion in annual funding for FAA operations, including $3.35 billion per year for airport planning and development.
“This legislation ensures long-term investment and stability in aviation infrastructure for America’s large, small and rural communities, and it addresses issues to help maintain the safety of our system,” Shuster said of the bill.
In addition, H.R. 4 includes the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, a bill that passed the House in December, but was not taken up by the Senate, and seeks to reform Federal Emergency Management Agency programs to “help communities better prepare for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate against disasters of all kinds,” according to a statement from the House T&I Committee.
“The bipartisan DRRA will ensure our communities are more resilient, build better and build smarter,” said Shuster. “Ultimately, because of this commonsense, proactive approach to mitigating the impacts of disasters before they strike and not waiting until afterwards to simply pick up the pieces, this legislation will save lives, save property, and save taxpayer dollars.”
Not included in the latest version of the FAA reauthorization, however, is a controversial proposal that would have seen the administration cede management of air traffic control functions to a private entity.
The House and Senate last summer introduced two opposing reauthorization bills. The House version, sponsored by Shuster and LoBiondo, among others, would have separated the nation’s “antiquated air traffic control service from the federal government and help finally modernize the system,” the House T&I committee said at the time.
Several labor unions, including the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, expressed support for the privatization of air traffic control functions, but others like the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO, which represents 11,000 employees at the FAA, weren’t so keen on the idea.
The NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association and the Allied Pilots Association said in a joint statement the House reauthorization would “expedite the overdue modernization of the national airspace system,” but PASS National President Mike Perrone argued, “Privatizing the largest and most complex aviation system in the world is a risk not worth taking at this pivotal point in its modernization.”
Despite the exclusion of such a provision, the latest FAA reauthorization bill is facing some heat from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The union was roiled by an amendment to the bill proposed by Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., that would effectively stop the ability of states and localities from setting any workplace rules for truck drivers in their jurisdictions.
The Teamsters warned that, if enacted, the provision would prohibit enacting or enforcing any law or regulation that imposes on interstate motor carriers any obligation beyond that covered in the federal government’s hours of service regulations.
“It represents an enormous overreach by the federal government and would overrule decades of court precedents confirming that truck drivers are entitled to basic workplace protections, paid sick days, and to be properly classified as employees,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said in a statement Tuesday.
The truck drivers’ union said the provision would further “strip truckers of minimum wage protections, and would not require their employers to pay them the given rate in the city or state where they work, only the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.”
In addition, the amendment would remove truck drivers from workplace protections like unemployment compensation and workers’ compensation, the Teamsters said.
House to vote on FAA reauthorization
