WASHINGTON — An agreement on a bill to provide operating authority for the Federal Aviation Administration over the next four years and to boost the agency’s air-traffic modernization effort was reached Tuesday by House and Senate negotiators, culminating a five-year struggle that included a partial shutdown of the agency.
The bill authorizes $63 billion for the FAA through the 2015 budget year. It includes compromises on several difficult issues that divided lawmakers along party lines and by region, including air-service subsidies for rural communities, safety regulation of cargo shipments of lithium batteries, and rules governing the formation of airline and railroad unions.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told lawmakers involved in the negotiations he wanted them to sign the agreement by the end of the day. Final passage of the bill by the House and Senate is expected sometime in the next two weeks.
The FAA’s long-term operating authority expired in 2007. The agency has continued to limp along under a series of 23 short-term extensions, but its ability to commit to decisions on major acquisition programs was hindered.
Congressional staff said key portions of the agreement include:
B Funding authority for FAA’s Next Generation air-traffic modernization program at about $1 billion a year, roughly.
B The curtailing of the Essential Air Service program, which subsidizes air service to rural communities.
B A requirement sought by House Republicans that the Department of Transportation follow the same safety standards for the shipment of lithium batteries by air as those set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency, rather than tougher rules proposed by the department.
