Contrary to some reports, the agreement I reached with the House Republican Leadership on the Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21^st Century (AIR 21) will not result in cuts in social security, defense, education or any other Federal programs. The agreement allows the House to decide the best use of aviation taxes. If the House increases funding over today’s total FAA budget it would be outside the caps and would be fully paid for by the aviation taxes deposited into the Aviation Trust Fund. For this reason, the agreement will not cause reductions in any other programs.

The agreement is based on a very simple premise: it is wrong to use the portion of the budget surplus that comes from the Aviation Trust Fund to finance a general tax cut. Instead, the aviation surplus should be used for its intended purpose – to improve our aviation system so that it is the safest, most secure, and most competitive in the world, with the least congestion possible. This is a worthy goal and one that will require significant additional investment as we enter the 21^st century. But the good news is that the money is there – it is in the Aviation Trust Fund. We just need to unlock it, and AIR 21 will do just that.

The agreement also addresses the contingency that when the House considers AIR 21 it may not agree to invest all of the aviation surplus in our aviation system. While I don’t think this will be the case, if it was, the surplus would revert to the Ways and Means Committee which would be able to reduce the aviation taxes. This would be the only fair thing to do at that point. If we are not going to invest the aviation taxes for their intended purpose, then we should reduce them.

So the bottom line is this: the aviation surplus will either be invested in aviation or returned to the people. But, in either event, AIR 21 will not result in cuts in any other Federal programs, including social security, medicare, defense, veterans’ programs or education.