Urge Administration To Direct FAA To Look For Alternative Savings In Its Budget

Leaders of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation have sent a bipartisan letter to the Administration expressing profound disappointment with the FAA's unprecedented decision to close 149 air traffic control contract towers to meet the sequester’s budget reduction requirements. The signatories express their concerns that the FAA has yet to address the impact the agency’s decision to close towers may have on aviation system safety or efficiency.

The letter was sent by House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) (pictured, right); the Transportation Committee’s Ranking Member Nick J. Rahall, II (D-WV); House Subcommittee on Aviation Chairman Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ); Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) (pictured, left); the Commerce Committee’s Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD); and Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security Chairman Maria E. Cantwell (D-WA).
 
“Right now we have more questions than answers, and we remain concerned about the safety of the aviation system and the general public," Shuster, Rahall, and LoBiondo said in a jointly-released statement. "We still don’t know what impacts closing these air traffic control towers will have, and to ensure that safety remains the top priority, the agency needs to focus intently on finding savings in other areas of its budget.”

Senators Rockefeller and Thune will hold a hearing on aviation safety April 16 at 2:30 p.m., where Administrator Huerta is scheduled to testify. It will examine the consequences of sequestration on the FAA and the agency’s efforts to implement safety provisions in recent FAA reauthorizations.

FMI: http://transportation.house.gov, www.commerce.senate.gov