LEXIS-NEXIS® Congressional Universe-Document

LEXIS-NEXIS® Congressional

March 1, 2000, Wednesday

SECTION: PREPARED TESTIMONY

LENGTH: 3362 words

HEADLINE: PREPARED TESTIMONY OF JOE DELBALZO CHAIRMAN-ELECT THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL ASSOCIATION, INC.

BEFORE THE HOUSE TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION

BODY:
Introduction

The Air Traffic Control Association, Inc. ("ATCA") is a professional association of fortyfour years standing dedicated to advancement in the science and profession of air traffic control and aviation safety. Its membership is worldwide in scope, and represents all aspects of the air traffic control discipline, from air traffic control specialists and airway facilities technicians who operate and maintain the air traffic control system, to those individuals and companies who develop and manufacture the technology, equipment, and services which support the system, to the citizens, government agencies and airlines who use the system.

ATCA appears before you today to urge increased funding for operations and capital improvement programs of the Federal Aviation Administration-activities that are fundamental to maintaining and improving the safety and efficiency of the national air transportation system.

Current Funding is Insufficient

At the dawn of a new millennium, the air transportation community is facing intensifying challenges, as well as unprecedented opportunities for improvements, in air traffic control and aviation safety. Among the most significant challenges--both domestically and globally--is relentless increase in the demand for aviation services which will require more and better facilities to satisfy. At the same time, however, aviation infrastructure is in dire need of updating and improvement. Although this need has long been recognized, years of deficit economics, budget capping, belt tightening, down sizing, rationalizing, doing more with less, and just plain doing lesshave taken their toll. Aging ATC equipment is increasingly unreliable, expensive and difficult to maintain. Replacement and modernization projects, starved for resources, are extended or postponed, and the benefits of those improvements are delayed or foregone. Staffing and support resources are so lean that day to day operational needs are all-consuming, leaving little if any time or energy for exploring innovative, efficiency enhancing procedures and operating concepts.

Moreover, the effects of funding deprivation are cumulative. Expert personnel departing through retirement or attrition are very difficult to replace with people of equivalent expertise, especially when resources for employee training and development are scarce, and hiring freezes are the norm. Infrastructure improvement projects are repeatedly interrupted, revised, and rebaselined in conformity with artificial budget restraints; completion horizons recede; potential benefits dwindle relative to cost; and good projects become obsolete or are overtaken by events and scrapped. As refurbishment and improvement is postponed, aviation infrastructure continues to crumble, users and passengers more and more often are delayed and frustrated, and the job of making needed improvements gets bigger and more difficult. No one wants this--not the FAA, not aviation users, not the general public.

The good news, however, is that today's technology-high speed computers, intelligent software, realistic displays and simulation, satellites, advanced sensors and communications equipment--is bringing dramatic improvements to air traffic control. Science and human creativity pose few impediments. The real challenge is assuring that funding, both for the technology, and for the people and support services needed to implement it, is applied to aviation needs in a timely way, and in amounts sufficient to get the job done. A related challenge will be to devise ways and means for commercial, private and military aircraft operators to make corresponding avionics improvements in keeping with FAA's modernization timetable.

The Administration is requesting $11.222 billion for FAA activities in Fiscal Year 2001, an increase of $1.281 billion (11%) over the FY 2000 enacted level. The Air Traffic Control Association urges the Congress to fund the Administration's request in full. This is the very least amount necessary to sustain the current level of activity. But more than that, the Association recommends that the Administration, Congress and the aviation community work together to increase the level of funding for FAA in FY 2001 above the amount proposed, in an amount sufficient for FAA to really address the backlog of deferred needs, and to explore promising concepts and technologies for meeting aviation needs of the new century. ATCA states no position on how FAA needs should be accommodated relative to other budget demands, but the Association does strongly urge that budget relief be provided by some means.

Operations Needs More Resources

The Administration is seeking $6.592 billion in FY 2001 for FAA Operations, $698.8 million (11%) more than the FY 2000 enacted level. This amount includes funding for 202 additional field maintenance staff, 64 new certification/flight standards staff, 35 oversight and assessment staff, and 94 security related staff. It also includes an increase of $135.4 million to make operational new equipment being delivered to support the NAS.

This proposed increase, although significant, is not enough to sustain the current level of operations, much less ensure excellence for the future. Demands on FAA's Operations funding are multiple and growing. The Operations account pays for day-to-day provision of ATC services, maintenance of ATC and other facilities, certification and regulation, security, all administrative services, training, travel, and payroll and benefits related to vim y all FAA personnel. Needs in all of these areas are increasing in keeping with relentless growth in demand for aviation services, and it is important for FAA to be competitive for skilled personnel in a very robust job market. Additionally, accommodating the greater financial burden of a large union contract labor force is putting increased pressure on operations resources.

Moreover, years of austerity budgeting including buy outs, attrition and hiring freezes has depleted FAA's work force of its most experienced and expert staff. As new equipment and systems are delivered in the modernization effort, even the most experienced of staff require education and training. The need for significantly increased funding for personnel hiring and development activities including training has never been greater.

Additional activities such as realistic cost accounting, ATC system performance evaluation, and stepped up collection, analysis, sharing of aviation safety and operations data all require substantial new resources. Globalization of aviation requires increased safety surveillance, more information collection, and collaboration with aviation partners around the world, requiring more personnel, more travel, and better tools for FAA personnel.

No one wants FAA to have to reduce the level or excellent quality of the services it now provides. After years of belt tightening, the aviation community has come to the conclusion that there is no margin left in the ATC system for more economizing.

To the contrary, the aviation community universally agrees that FAA must undertake significant additional activities to satisfy predicted increases in the amount and complexity of air traffic foreseen for the future. Although ATCA cannot say precisely what amount of Operations funding in FY 2001 would allow FAA to launch a full scale, vigorous effort to build capabilities adequate for 21st Century aviation, the proposed 11% increase over current funding clearly will not do it. The Association recommends that this increase be at least 20% in FY 2001, and that FAA be required to provide the Congress with its estimated funding requirements unrestrained by budget caps.

Facilities and Equipment Funding Should Increase

The Administration is requesting $2.495 billion for FAA Facilities and Equipment in Fiscal Year 2001, an increase of 22% over the FY 2001 enacted level. Even this increase, although substantial, falls far short of the amount required.

Facilities and Equipment funds are used not only for ATC system modernization, but also for sustaining and refurbishing current equipment and systems, many of which will remain in place for the foreseeable future. In 1998, FAA estimated that modernization costs alone based on the National Aviation System Architecture Version 3.0 in effect at that time would be approximately$3 billion per year.1 Adding to this the annual costs of sustaining and refurbishing equipment already in use, it becomes clear that the true necessary level ofF&E funding for FAA in FY2001 and for the foreseeable future is more in the order of $4. 0 billion per year. Because FAA's first priority is maintaining and replenishing equipment and systems already in use, funding below this mount necessarily will impact modernization activities in proportion to the shortfall. At the proposed $2.5 billion level there would be very few modernization projects immune to down scaling, schedule stretch, or interruption.

The Administration is proposing significant amounts of funding for major projects which are central to modernization. Among these items are the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System ($178.7 million), which will replace antiquated ATC terminal equipment with uniform displays, workstations and software, which is needed to support future ATC requirements. The Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) ($111 million) will make the Global Positioning System (GPS) useable for en route, terminal, non-precision, and near Category 1 precision approaches. $105 million is proposed for Terminal ATC facilities replacement, $198 million for Terminal Digital Radar (ASR- 11), $77.6 million for replacement of ATC Beacon Interrogator, and $75.5 million for Terminal Automation. All of these are large undertakings with substantial resource requirements. They are absolutely necessary for meeting future needs and will deliver significant benefits both in terms of safety and efficiency. Funding requests for these items must be fully supported.

In addition to these major items, numerous smaller scale projects are vital to modernization. Not only must the Administration's funding requests for these items be fully funded, but additional resources in these areas could accelerate delivery of safety and efficiency benefits to the system. Among these classes of items are projects directed toward improving detection and management of air traffic on the airport surface (e.g. AMASS, ASDE-X), technologies to improve detection and dissemination of aviation weather information (WARP, NEXRAD, TDWR, LLWAS, ASOS, ITWS), communications improvements such as NEXCOM and the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure project (FTI), and Flight Service Station improvements such as OASIS. Perhaps no one project promises more significant benefits for the price than Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC), which provides controllers and pilots the option of communicating through data exchange as well as voice. In test and evaluation, this technology has proved the most effective, quickest way to relieve radio frequency congestion, improve safety and increase system capacity, while at the same time reducing controller workload, and merits strong financial support.

Equally worthy of full funding are FAA's efforts to accelerate implementation of technologies that will yield significant immediate operating benefits. This activity, designated Free Flight, is very important for maintaining user support for modernization, and to gamer near term safety and efficiency benefits for both users and FAA. Products of this effort already successfully fielded include sharing of schedule and ATC data to reduce delay and improve system efficiency (CDM), better sequencing and metering tools for controllers in terminal areas (CTAS), better management of traffic on the airport surface (SMA), and a tool for evaluating airline routing requests for potential air traffic conflicts (URET). In Phase 2 of this activity, FAA plans to intensify implementation of CPDLC, and initiate Reduced Vertical Separation Miniraa (RVSM), both of which have positive implications for capacity enhancement. The Administration is seeking $221 million for these activities. ATCA urges that this request be fully funded.

The Association also believes that there is a large, unrecognized financial burden to be borne as the transition period between the advent of new capabilities and the retirement of the old (e.g. GPS navigation replacing VOR/DME) stretch out beyond past assumptions. These costs will continue to be substantial and not subject to deferral.

In short, FAA cannot possibly maintain the present ATC system, refurbish current equipment, and continue full scale modernization/replacement of NAS equipment with the current level of funding. When only partial funding trickles down each year to crucial modernization projects, implementations get delayed, costs increase, priorities are readjusted constantly-in short, the entire effort suffers. ATCA urges the Congress to assure that funding enacted for FAA in FY 2001 and future years take into consideration all of the agency's F&E requirements, and be sufficient to sustain a vigorous modernization effort over and above sustainment of current capabilities.

Research, Engineering and Development is Under Funded

The Administration is requesting only $184 million for Research, Engineering, and Development in Fiscal Year 2001. The Air Traffic Control Association estimates that the real RE&D funding needs of FAA are more in the order of $500-600 million in FY 2001 and future years.

The Association is concerned that funding levels for FAA RE&D over the past two years signal an alarming reversal of the Nation's historical commitment to robust aeronautical research and development, particularly R&D that keeps the United States on the forefront of advancements in the science of air traffic control. With more than half of this account earmarked by law for safety, security and related research, funding at the level the Administration proposes will provide very little at all for the RE&D associated with implementation of the NAS Architecture. In draft version 3.0 of the Architecture, FAA estimated this need alone to be $348 million in FY 1999, increasing to $560 million in FY 2000.

Even these amounts understate the overall cost of aviation RE&D that should be occurring, because FAA activities traditionally have emphasized applied research. As with all organizations having a highly technical mission, significant funding should be appropriated for basic research - the type of inquiry that can yield breakthrough concepts and technologies that will bring significant long-term benefits. Without generous, continuous support for this type of activity, scientific advance of the quality the United States has heretofore achieved will become a thing of the past.

The Association acknowledges a new level of cooperation between FAA, NASA, DOD, and supporting organizations in achieving long term research goals, embodied in the National Research and Development Plan for Aviation Safety, Security, Efficiency, and Environmental Compatibility, issued November 1999. These efforts certainly are promising, but the Association does not envision them as substituting for a vigorous, focused R&D program within FAA. These multi- organization efforts will complement FAA programs, not substitute for them. Both NASA and DOD recognize that FAA's role as system architect dictates that FAA retain the leadership role in R&D activities feeding into the NAS.

Airport Improvements Funding Should Increase

The Administration proposes $1.950 billion in FY 2001, equal to the FY 2000 enacted level, for Airport Improvement Grants. The Air Traffic Control Association urges the Congress to fund this request in full.

The traveling public increasingly experiences the inconvenience and frustration and of delays associated with inadequate system capacity. The need is becoming more and more urgent for more runways, taxiways, and other airport facilities, especially in growing communities. Localities, especially small communities, are hard pressed to pay for airport improvements that keep pace with the expanding aviation marketplace, and yet their residents need to be fully integrated with an economy that is increasingly global.

Inadequacies in airport infrastructure, no less than failings in other elements of the air transportation system can become a limiting factor on trade, tourism and local economic activity. Systematic and healthy Federal investment in airport development is an essential component of a balanced plan to meet aviation needs in the future. Certainly, during this time of economic vigor, the Nation should be sustaining and increasing its investment in airport infrastructure.

A Reliable Funding Stream is Needed

There is a continuing need for the aviation community and policy makers to pursue consensus on a structure that will assure funding for aviation that is reliable and predictable, as well as sufficient in amount.

The Air Traffic Control Association has long advocated legislation that would separate the Airport and Airway Trust Fund from the unified Federal budget. Such legislation would improve the ability of the Federal government to fund aviation infrastructure improvement projects by eliminating any incentive to maintain positive balances in the trust fund to offset funding deficits in other programs. Moreover, it would facilitate more generous and reliable funding for capital improvements, helping managers plan investment on multi-year basis.The Association also supports a substantial contribution--at least 25-30% --by the Federal general fund toward the costs of FAA Operations. This is right and fair because FAA is responsible not only for operation of the air traffic control system, but also for safety oversight, regulation, certification, and security. These latter activities are inherently government functions necessary to protect the public welfare. Moreover, the general public, even infrequent travelers, benefit from a National Air Transportation System which moves goods, products and mall efficiently and economically, stands ready to assist the Department of Defense in times of crisis, and supports the commerce and tourism that are fundamental to the Nation's robust economy. These benefits are more than worth the public dollars expended.

Research and discussion is ongoing among policy makers and the aviation community about whether additional structural reforms could make the provision of air traffic serves more economical and efficient. Views on these issues at this point are various and divergent, and no one perspective should be permitted to overcome others. ATCA is however confident that deliberations will converge on practical, achievable, consensus recommendations, provided the discussion continues to take into account the needs of all stakeholders, and remains candid, cordial, and positive.

Conclusion

At the dawn of the 21st Century there is great reason for optimism in aviation. Although the challenges are significant--expanding demand, pressing need for infrastructure expansion and modernization, advanced technology is available to meet those challenges. What is needed is consensus within the aviation community--the Administration, Congress, users, the traveling public-about the importance of modernization for meeting air transportation requirements of the future, and the political will and commitment to funding it. Let us fall of neither.

NOTE:

l Version 3.0 of the Architecture reflected a consensus view of the aviation community on ATC modernization needs and priorities for new operating capabilities in the National Airspace System. Subsequent versions of the Architecture were revised downward to conform with Administration funding projections for FAA in Fiscal Years 2000 and beyond, and therefore do not necessarily reflect total modernization needs or accelerated project schedules.

END

LOAD-DATE: March 2, 2000