One of ALPA's top legislative priorities was achieved when Congress finally stamped its approval on an FAA reauthorization bill. Every ALPA member, especially ALPA-PAC contributors, should be very proud. The reauthorization provides some $40 billion over 3 years to fund the agency's operation and provide capital for modernizing ATC and aviation infrastructure. Significantly, the measure, for the first time, earmarks $33 billion of the reauthorization to come from the Aviation Trust Fund with the remainder coming from general U.S. Treasury funds.

For more than a decade, ALPA has championed taking the Aviation Trust Fund out of the federal budget. We sought to use the money for aviation improvements and not as a counterweight for deficit government spending. ALPA was often the lone advocate for this cause. In response to last summer's ATC delays and passenger complaints, the Air Transport Association, the organization of the major U.S. airlines, joined the fray. Together, we convinced the House of Representatives to move ahead on this matter.

ALPA lobbyists and I must have made 30 trips to Capitol Hill in recent months to discuss this issue with senators and to testify before the House Subcommittee on Aviation. We strived to convince the legislators of the importance of this bill for all Americans. We stressed that the funding issues addressed in the bill are critical to the safe and efficient operation of the U.S. airspace system.

Eventually, Congress hammered out a compromise, and the House/Senate Conference Committee produced the final language. A number of issues, which the ALPA Executive Board had set as high priorities, survived the congressional wrangling. The $33 billion that the FAA reauthorization bill withdraws from the Fund will pay for vital National Airspace System improvement projects that ALPA members have sought for many years, including $8 million to purchase and install a universal access system, $450,000 for measures to mitigate wildlife hazards and to manage the FAA's wildlife strike database, and $3 million per year for efforts to prevent runway incursions. The bill also requires that collision avoidance equipment at least as good as TCAS II be installed in cargo aircraft by 2003.

The bill also directs the FAA to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on certification of small airports and authorizes $15 million for each of the next 3 fiscal years to help with compliance; requires that the FAA issue, within 90 days of enactment, an NPRM that would protect pilots from enforcement actions for unwitting FAR violations that those pilots report through voluntary programs such as FOQA and ASAP; requires that within 60 days of enactment the U.S. Attorney General report to Congress on whether the Justice Department will authorize and implement a national program to deputize local law enforcement officers to enforce federal aviation security rules; and raises the civil penalty against unruly airline passengers from $10,000 to $25,000.

Two procedural points of order protect the congressional intent to fund infrastructure improvement. One will prevent Congress from allowing infrastructure funding to drop below the amount in the Aviation Trust Fund. The second provides that infrastructure improvements are to be fully funded with Trust Fund monies first, and then airport grants and FAA capital accounts. To all ALPA pilots and staff who labored to achieve this victorythank you.

s/Duane E. Woerth