LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe-Document

LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic

March 12, 1999, Friday ,City Edition

SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A3

LENGTH: 392 words

HEADLINE: House panel votes new funds for FAA

BYLINE: By Jim Abrams, Associated Press

BODY:

WASHINGTON - A House committee approved a big increase in spending for the Federal Aviation Administration yesterday, and a Senate panel heard frustrated travelers demand better treatment from airlines.

The House Transportation Committee, by a voice vote, passed a measure that would double funding for the FAA during the next five years, to about $20 billion in 2004.

The bill by chairman and Representative Bud Shuster, Republican of Pennsylvania, would find the additional money by separating the Aviation Trust Fund, which holds revenues from airport user taxes, from the general federal budget. The administration, which has its own FAA bill, opposes such a move because it would reduce the general budget's expected surpluses by billions of dollars in the coming years. But Shuster succeeded last year in protecting a similar highway trust fund from use by other federal programs.

Shuster's bill also would try to increase competition to smaller, underserved airports through funding aid and increasing flights out of Chicago's O'Hare, New York's LaGuardia and Kennedy, and Washington's Reagan National.

The proposal would end caps on slots - each equivalent to a takeoff and landing - at the Chicago and New York airports by March 1, 2000.

Washington could get up to six new slots for service to underserved airports.

The Senate Commerce Committee chairman, John McCain, Republican of Arizona, also has sought to help smaller markets hurt by airline deregulation.

McCain's version of FAA reauthorization, which has cleared his committee, would open up the Chicago and New York airports and add 48 slots at Washington, half of which would extend beyond the 1,250-mile limit set in 1986 for flights from the airport. Efforts to reauthorize the FAA stalled last year when Representative Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican, objected to increased flights at O'Hare.

The House legislation also would let local authorities double passenger facility charges. It would increase from $1.95 billion to $5 billion annually spending on the airport improvement program, which pays to build runways and taxiways, and deals with noise pollution.

Vice President Al Gore also introduced an administration bill of rights for passengers Wednesday.

McCain's committee heard from disgruntled passengers yesterday.

LOAD-DATE: March 12, 1999