11-06-1999

TRANSPORTATION: Aviation Budget Fight Grounds Conferees

House and Senate conferees were stuck on the runway on Nov. 3 during
negotiations on a bill (H.R. 1000) that would reauthorize and stabilize
funds for the nation's airports and the Federal Aviation
Administration.


House members demanded that Congress be prevented from spending aviation
trust funds, which are generated by airline ticket taxes and other fees,
on nonaviation programs. They want either to take the $10 billion-a-year
aviation trust fund "off-budget" or to find another way to
guarantee adequate annual spending for aviation.


But Senators vowed not to let these aviation revenues be segregated from
the rest of the federal budget. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the
Appropriations Committee chairman, seemed hurt that House conferees didn't
trust those who hold the legislative purse strings. "Why can't you
trust the Congress to continue the historical support for aviation in the
general fund?" Stevens asked. "The real problem is, there's a
lack of trust around this table."


House members argued that the FAA modernization and airport improvements
are underfunded by $4 billion a year, which aggravates air travel back-ups
and gridlock. Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee, said that the situation is becoming a
"crisis."


House conferees rejected a proposal by Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., that
would guarantee that all of the money from the aviation trust fund would
be used for aviation. Under Domenici's proposal, the fund would remain
under the control of congressional appropriators, and interest accumulated
in the fund would not be dedicated to aviation. But the fund would not be
taken off- budget, as House members wanted.


Airline and airport industry officials have mounted a telephone campaign
in recent days to convince Senators to move toward the House version,
which is wildly popular with aviation interests because of its
guaranteed-funding provisions.


Robert Ourlian

National Journal