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LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic

March 16, 2000, Thursday

SECTION: NEWS;Pg. A-2

LENGTH: 346 words

HEADLINE: Congress approves $40 billion bill to upgrade airports

BYLINE: Maria Recio; KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE

BODY:
WASHINGTON -- After nearly a year of delays, Congress yesterday passed a three-year, $40 billion bill that sharply increases spending on airport construction, allows airports to raise fees on passenger tickets by as much as $6 per round trip and boosts money to modernize the air traffic control system.

The House yesterday approved the bill 319-101. Last week the Senate voted for it 82-17. President Clinton has said he will sign the measure. "This legislation will make our skies safer, modernize air traffic control, reduce flight delays and boost airline competition," said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster, R-Pa., the bill's architect.

Shuster insisted that user fees paid into the airport trust fund be spent on aviation alone.

The bill will boost money for airport projects by $10 billion in the next three years.

San Diego's Lindbergh Field is to receive $5.3 million through the measure, which also would provide money for smaller airports in the San Diego area.

The FAA will get nearly $1 billion more a year to continue modernizing the aging air-traffic control system.

Debate in Congress focused in part on the measure's grant of authority to airports to boost passenger fees, with some members calling it a tax bill.

Reps. Brian Bilbray, R-Imperial Beach, Randy Cunningham, R-Escondido, Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, and Bob Filner, D-San Diego, voted with the majority. Rep. Ron Packard, R-Oceanside opposed the measure.

The bill permits a $1.50 increase in passenger fees for each flight segment, which 294 airports levy on travelers. Airports can charge up to $3 on a flight segment.

The fees are limited to two flight segments per ticket, so a passenger on a flight that makes one stop would pay $18 per round-trip ticket, up from the maximum of $12.

Since 1995, the San Diego Unified Port District has levied the maximum passenger facility charge on travelers at Lindbergh Field, said Thella Bowens, senior aviation director for the port, which operates Lindbergh.

LOAD-DATE: March 20, 2000