FAA Budgeting is a Mess

By Jim Spensley, Hindsight Community Fellow, October 3, 2011 at 12:30 pm

In travelers served, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) is North America's 15th largest. MSP is also the 11th busiest in operations per hour, and its 3.5 square mile urban land area is the smallest of any hub.

With Minnesota home to 20 Fortune 500 companies, safe, sufficient, and affordable air travel is necessary to keep the Metropolitan area economy going and growing.

However, Congress's current piecemeal FAA funding approach—22 temporary funding extensions over four years—impedes this vital transportation mode. The most recent funding continuation provides money only through January 15, 2012.

The FAA 2012 budget and re-authorization are separate from the overall Federal budget. But the 2012 could become part of the overall "compromise."

FAA funding has been a mess, and is getting worse. The recent funding pointedly omits some programs. Traditionally, continuing resolutions kept all of the existing funding authorities in place.

The public and Minnesota need Congress to do a better job working toward a comprehensive transportation funding bill. Infrastructure all over Minnesota depends on it. When the Federal government spends this money in Minnesota, private sector jobs will follow..

The way Florida conservative John Mica, who chairs the U.S. House Transportation Committee, wants to fund the FAA is causing serious concerns about less funds for oversight of airliner airworthiness and maintenance, for pilot and air crew training certifications, and for crash investigations.

The bill provides for more Federal subsidies for avionics (cockpit aviation electronics) for navigation, although the specifications for Next Gen GPS avionics are unsettled.

The House majority expects little debate or compromise while they hold the power to impose authority (policy) changes or cause a shut-down. I would be the last to say that the FAA could never do more with less funding, but our fears about what impacts delays, politicized arguments, and any likely compromises will cause are fully justified.

Over the summer, the White House and FAA proposed a compromise 2012 budget that in essence would have reduced appropriations and cut yearly spending for the Next Gen development in favor of dealing with more imminent safety problems: contract operators, retiring controllers, and congested corridors and airports.

At this stage, arguing and political debates over funding basic safety needs is ridiculous. Present day safety should be in the forefront without question. By now, FAA should have figured out interim congestion mitigation and acted on the National Transportation Safety Board's long-standing and urgent requirement for improved safety on the ground at major airports.

Updating en route air traffic control and safety systems and procedures, now scheduled for 2018 or later, is premised on the need for more capable and reliable air traffic control systems announced by FAA in 2007. The Next Gen improvements to air traffic control tower systems would be further downstream.

Posted in Transportation | Related Topics: Federal Government  Air Travel  Transportation Funding