Contact: Mary Kerr
Room 2365 RHOB, Washington, DC, 20515
(202)225-6211        

March 15, 2000

WASHINGTON—The House of Representatives today passed the Wendell Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act (HR 1000), a $40 billion funding bill for federal aviation programs through Fiscal Year 2003, increasing investment in airports, air traffic control systems and other facilities by some $10 billion over present levels. The bill will provide $16.6 million for airport improvements in Minnesota in the next fiscal year.

The bill’s passage comes two weeks after House and Senate conferees reached a compromise on budget matters and other provisions that had stalled progress on the bill for nearly two years.

The bill sets historic precedent by guaranteeing that revenues collected through aviation taxes and deposited in the Airport and Airways Trust Fund will be dedicated to investment in aviation programs. In previous years, Congressional appropriators allowed surpluses to build up in the trust fund in order to spend more funds on programs and activities not related to aviation. Members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee protested that the money in the trust fund was collected for a specific purpose. To withhold that money to cover spending for other purposes betrays the trust of the travelers who paid the tax.

"What we are doing is keeping faith with the traveling public who agreed to be taxed for a specific purpose," said Rep. James Oberstar (Minn.), Ranking Democratic Member of the committee.

In Minnesota, the bill provides $16.7 million for commercial airports and $16.6 million for general aviation airports each year. There is also an annual cargo entitlement of $698,000 for Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport.

HR 1000 also allows local airports to raise additional revenue by increasing the cap on locally imposed Passenger Facility Charges (PFCs) from $3.00 to $4.50. It increases competition at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports by phasing out the high density rule, which requires airlines serving those airports to be assigned a slot for each take-off and landing. This rule has been cited as a barrier for new airlines wishing to enter these markets. The bill modifies the high density rule at a fourth airport, Washington’s Reagan National, by adding 24 slots a day.

The bill provides relief from the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA) for people who lose family members in an airline crash at sea. Accidents which occur within 12 miles of the U.S. shoreline will no longer be covered by DOHSA, and survivors will be allowed to sue for loss of companionship in disasters outside the 12-mile limit. DOHSA, enacted in the 1920s, only allows compensation for loss of income due to a death at sea. Consequently, survivors could not sue for damages if the victim were a child or other non-income producing member of the family. Under HR 1000, families will be able to seek compensation for such a loss.

The bill was named for Sen. Wendell H. Ford, former Democratic Senator from Kentucky, who was a leader on aviation issues. The Senate approved the bill March 8.

Annual Entitlements under HR 1000 for Airports in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District

The following small airports will share $1.78 million a year: