"FAA Talks The Talk, But Doesn't Walk The Walk"
America's air transportation system, and the small- to mid-size
businesses in small towns and rural areas nationwide that depend on
general aviation, would be the losers if a user fee plan being
pushed by the airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) becomes law, Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National
Business Aviation Association (NBAA), told a congressional
subcommittee Wednesday.
In testimony before the House Aviation Subcommittee of the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Bolen argued the
FAA plan fulfills a long-standing lobbying campaign by the airlines
to shift airline costs onto general aviation in the form of onerous
new taxes and user fees.
"In 1997, the nation's seven largest airlines pushed for a user
fee scheme," Bolen added. "But according to one airline CEO at the
time, the real goal was 'control of the FAA by the Big Seven and
for their exclusive benefit.'
"This time around, the airlines have picked a new target for
their tax shift -- general aviation -- and they have increased the
amount to $2 billion. The objective of reducing congressional
control of the FAA remains the same," he said.
When it comes to modernization, Bolen said "the FAA talks the
talk, but doesn't walk the walk."
In reality, he said, the FAA plan "cuts FAA funding by $600
million, reduces the General Fund contribution by hundreds of
millions, and diverts money that could and should be spent on
runways, towers and modernization technologies and wastes it on a
new bureaucracy. After all that, it allows the FAA to go into
debt."
Bolen
also questioned why, if the bill is really a modernization plan, it
does not outline the technologies, timelines or costs of the next
phase of modernization envisioned for the national air
transportation system.
"The truth is that the airline-backed proposal is completely at
odds with modernization because it contains provisions that would
overthrow a funding structure that has proven to be stable,
reliable and growing for more than 25 years in exchange for a
radical user fee regime that would jeopardize the largest, safest
and most efficient air transportation system in the world," Bolen
said.
"The battle over aviation user fees is a battle over whether
Congress will retain control of the air traffic system or whether
that control will shift to unelected bureaucrats or even industry,"
Bolen stated. "If that happens, small and mid-size businesses,
small towns and rural areas not served by scheduled airlines, and
dependent on general aviation, will be devastated by the loss of
voice, new taxes and user fees."