Transportation Budget Draws Industry Ire

The budget for the Department of Transportation has raised such industry concerns that at least one organization – the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – has launched an campaign to get Secretary Mary Peters fired, charging she has spent federal dollars unconstitutionally and defied...

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The budget for the Department of Transportation has raised such industry concerns that at least one organization – the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – has launched an campaign to get Secretary Mary Peters fired, charging she has spent federal dollars unconstitutionally and defied Congress. While the teamster’s complaint centers on cross-border trucking, the budget is no less controversial in the aviation industry, for its stubborn insistence on changing the funding mechanism to user fees. The FAA is currently operating on a continuing resolutions set to expire February 29.
Much to the consternation of the regional and business aviation community, the Administration’s 2009 transportation budget request – $68 billion for the Department of Transportation – retained the user fee changes proposed last year. At a time when the Airport Improvement Program has been suspended and supplementary budgets are running the FAA, this means that the fight against user fees – which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars – must continue this year. Related Story
Secretary Peters indicated that the FY 2009 budget more than doubles the investment in NextGen technology – providing $688 million – a nearly $500 million increase from 2008 – for the transformation from radar-based to satellite-based air traffic systems. “Instead of having our transportation dollars whittled away with hundreds of congressional earmarks, we need to direct funding to projects that have the most impact on…congestion relief,” Secretary Peters said.
Despite this, the FAA budget was actually dropped by $300 million. The $68 billion DOT budget earmarked $14.6 billion for FAA funding, $9.67 of which would fund the Air Traffic Organization with the balance going for airport grants ($2.75 billion, down $765 million), safety and operations ($2.1 billion) and research, engineering and development ($171 million).
The opening shot was fired by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). "Despite Congress saying ‘no’ to the Administration's proposal to scrap the current funding mechanism for a less efficient one that imposes user fees, they have once again launched an effort to complete a FAA reauthorization bill by proposing the exact same failed plan," said GAMA's President and CEO, Pete Bunce. “We will continue our efforts with Congress to complete action this year on a FAA reauthorization bill, but quite frankly, the Administration pushing a financing scheme Congress has already rejected makes our job tougher.” Bunce added, “It is pretty hard to believe the Administration is serious about increasing capacity when they again cut Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funding by nearly 22 percent.” While user fees were rejected in the House-proposed reauthorization legislation last year, it was passed as part of the Senate Finance Committee’s reauthorization legislation.
The Secretary said almost one third of the budget will go toward safety programs to help make travel safer by focusing on problem areas like runway incursions and near misses in the air, motorcycle crashes, and pedestrian injuries. The budget also provides funding to hire additional safety personnel, such as air traffic controllers and pipeline inspectors.
In addition, the budget places a strong focus on fighting congestion, said the department in its release, which also emphasized the identification and implementation of new, innovative ways to fight gridlock on the roads and in the air. “If last-year’s record traffic jams and flight delays taught us anything, it is that traditional approaches are not capable of producing the results we need to keep America’s economy growing,” Secretary Peters said.
However, Airports Council International-North America President Greg Principato did not buy it. He said the cuts proposed by the administration would mean more congestion and delays because the system is already stretched to its limit.
The Teamsters this week launched a "Fire Mary Peters" campaign because she illegally opened the borders to trucks from Mexico. The grass roots and “netroots” campaign was kicked off last week with subway ads, radio commercials, Web ads, bumper stickers and a Web site. Teamster Union headquarters have been besieged by requests for bumper stickers that say, "Fire Mary Peters – She Breaks the Law."
"The last time I looked, the U.S. Constitution only gives Congress the authority to decide how federal funds are spent," Hoffa, who has the support of at least three members of Congress, said. "Where does Mary Peters think she gets the authority to overrule Congress?" Hoffa said Peters misled Congress on measures taken to ensure that the borders wouldn't be open to trucks that posed a danger to the American traveling public.

FAA Faces Suspension of Important Activities
Failure to pass a reauthorization bill last year, in favor of continuing budget resolutions has put important programs in jeopardy, said FAA Chief Financial Officer Ramesh K. Punwani in testimony before Congress last week. “Most notably, our airports, facilities and equipment and research personnel (approximately 4,000 employees) will be sent home because they can only be paid from the Trust Fund,” he said. “FAA will not be able to provide funding on our major contracts, including ADS-B, STARS, ERAM and WAAS, which are the foundational programs for both our existing air traffic control system and the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Essential functions will be maintained as long as possible but certain safety- and capacity-enhancing projects and programs will be deferred and our remaining personnel, who are funded by the General Fund portion of the Operations account, would also be sent home after funding provided by the General Fund has been fully obligated — most likely in early June.
“Of the $14.9 billion appropriated for FAA this fiscal year, approximately $12.6 billion (or 84 percent) of our FY 2008 budget is funded from the AATF while the remaining $2.3 billion (or 16 percent) is supported from the General Fund,” he said pointing out that the authority to collect taxes that account for 95 percent of revenues will also expire. “All of FAA’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP), Facilities and Equipment (F&E), and Research, Engineering and Development (R,E&D) accounts are funded by law solely from the Trust Fund. The uncommitted balance in the Trust Fund (approximately $1.5 billion, as of the end of FY 2007), which could only be tapped if Trust Fund expenditure authority is extended, is insufficient to sustain FAA operations beyond a few months and a lapse in the collection of excise taxes could very quickly begin to impact FAA’s operations, forcing a shut down of our remaining 43,000 employees funded through the Operations appropriations account.”