House And Senate Continue To Disagree Over Air Traffic Control Privatization

Differences between leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate over ATC privatization have stalled the FAA reauthorization bill, and it now appears that another stopgap continuing resolution will be needed to keep the agency's doors open while the two bodies continue to try to work through the issue.

Republican leaders in the House have been trying for two years to restructure the agency and some of its funding structure, including the shift of air traffic control functions to an independent non-profit company. But the idea faced  strong opposition from House Democrats, and while the bill passed the committee chaired by Republican Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, it did not come to the floor of the full House for a vote.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate passed a much shorter-term bill to fund the FAA for about a year, but did not include ATC privatization and the Senate leadership has no intention of doing so.

The Wall Street Journal reports that what that means is the congress will likely have to pass another continuing resolution to continue funding the FAA before the current stopgap spending measure expires on July 15.

The paper reports that NATCA president Paul Rinaldi, who supports the House measure, said that he would be "surprised" Congress did anything other than continue to use continuing resolutions to push the matter until after the election, and perhaps into early 2017. Gerald Dillingham, a senior Government Accountability Office official, agreed, saying that the GAO does not expect a resolution to the matter this year.

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