The U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee today introduced its version of the 2009 Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, which includes provisions to speed the rollout of a next-generation satellite-based air traffic control system, and includes language to bolster airline safety and implement components of a passenger bill of rights.
Today's bill—the Senate's companion to the House's 2009 FAA reauthorization bill,
passed in May—would fund FAA for two years, granting it more than $17 billion in 2010 and $23.5 billion in 2011. Further funding, particularly for the NextGen air traffic control system beyond that timeframe, is not addressed in the bill.
Noting that airlines continue to rely on "out of date" ground-based radar, aviation operations, safety and security subcommittee chairman Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) today in a call with reporters said the bill proposes to move up the dates for air traffic control modernization deadlines.
Dorgan noted that the previous estimated target date for "fully converting to a GPS system" was 2025, while the new bill shifts implementation of a fully implemented satellite-based system to 2018. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, today called the system "so antiquated" that "Mongolia is ahead of us on air traffic control."
The bill would create an "Air Traffic Control Modernization Oversight Board" and a "Chief NextGen Officer" within FAA "to be responsible for the implementation of all NextGen programs."
Funding disagreements in the past have hamstrung efforts to advance the updating of the air traffic control system, but Rockefeller said he was optimistic that in the course of two years, by working with the Obama administration, the industry and FAA administrator Randy Babbitt, "we'll work it out," regarding ATC funding. Rockefeller said the bill only is valid for two years to give the Obama administration sufficient time to formulate a comprehensive aviation program and provide input on funding.
Rockefeller during the call today was firm in his stance that the general aviation segment of the industry should pay its fair share for air traffic control. Though he noted there is less private aviation traffic today than there was a year ago, Rockefeller said, "Last year at this time, about two-thirds of all airplanes in the sky at any given moment were general aviation, yet they were only paying 8 percent of the cost of the air traffic control system. That's not fair."
Meanwhile, addressing concerns raised in several House and Senate committee hearings on airline safety in recent weeks that there are different codes of safety requirements for large airlines than for regional carriers, the bill also seeks to create "one level of safety standards," according to Dorgan.
The bill also seeks to establish a database to better track pilots and their safety records "just it does with respect to he airplane you're on," Dorgan said. "If you're on an airplane, the minute that airplane comes off that line and comes into commercial service, everything that has been done to that airplane has been recorded, and you have a compete historical record of that airplane. We don't have a similar record of the person in the cockpit, and we are requiring the FAA to put together that comprehensive database of pilot records."
The bill also seeks to increase oversight of foreign repair stations used by U.S. carriers.
Meanwhile, Dorgan noted the Senate bill also includes a passenger bill of rights provision, which includes a "hard three-hour time limit to allow passengers to deplane in the case of extended delay." The Senate bill does not include a provision, introduced by Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) in the House version, that would empower the Secretary of Transportation to sunset antitrust immunity granted to airlines.
Although the House version of the bill enabled airports to increase the passenger facility charge, a fee levied on airline tickets to fund airports, the Senate bill "does not change or increase the maximum allowable PFCs that are currently permitted under the program's authority," according a committee statement. Like the House bill, the Senate version advocates raising the level of funding for the Essential Air Services program.