Washington Wire - 1997-02-24

Excise Tax Coming Back?

The House Ways and Means Committee cleared legislation earlier this month to renew the excise taxes-including the 10 percent ticket tax and the $6 international departure charge-through Sept. 30, the end of the government's fiscal year. The full House of Representatives is expected to vote on the measure this week.

The Senate Finance Committee has approved an identical measure. Although no vote is scheduled in the full Senate, there are indications that it, too, will take place this week.


FAA Website Lists Safety Info

The Federal Aviation Administration will launch an Internet Website (http://www.faa.gov) on Feb. 28 dedicated to safety information, including some airline accident and incident data previously available only through Freedom of Information Act requests.

On March 31, the FAA will add safety information for consumers, including the role and responsibilities of the FAA, the airlines, aircraft manufacturers, repair stations, safety and security inspectors and others. As of April 1, the FAA will issue quarterly lists of all completed enforcement actions against individual airlines.


Airports To Get Weather Alerts

The FAA has contracted Raytheon Co. to build a weather-prediction system that will give air traffic controllers and pilots sophisticated information on weather hazards.

The Integrated Terminal Weather System will be installed at 34 sites covering 45 airports with significant weather hazards. The first system will be installed in Memphis in November 2001 and the last in Dayton, Ohio, in February 2003, the FAA said.

The criteria used to determine which airports will receive ITWS include the number of thunderstorm days per year, the volume of air traffic and the number of passengers boarded at the facility annually.

ITWS will automatically combine data from separate FAA and National Weather Service sensors and radars, and present the information to air traffic controllers via easily understood graphics and text.

In spite of this effort, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, released a report saying that the FAA's management of its $1 billion program to upgrade the nation's air traffic control system is plagued by the agency's failure to provide reliable cost estimates and accounting.