NATCA Bookshelf

31 I s s u e s N A T I O N A L A I R T R A F F I C C O N T R O L L E R S A S S O C I A T I O N | W W W . N AT C A . O R G N i W To d a y prioritize mandatory costs such as subscription services and leases, basic ATC facility sustainment, salaries, travel, major support contracts, and NAS system sustainment. Additionally, FAA has no choice but to replace its copper wire telecommunications lines with fiberoptic internet protocol systems, because local telecommunications companies are shutting off copper wire service. This prioritization leaves very few resources for important programs such as ATC facility replacement, the NAS facility sustainment backlog, the NAS system sustainment backlog, NAS system improvements, radar and surveillance sustainment and replacement, and Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) and Terminal Radar Approach Control facility (TRACON) consolidation, just to name a few. As a result, FAA must request and Congress must provide robust funding levels in the near-term while planning ahead for future increased budgetary needs – especially for the Ops and F&E budgets. As is the case in most fiscal years, the Ops budget will need to be increased to accommodate increased hiring, personnel, and other fixed costs that are integral to the safe and efficient operation of the NAS. EXAMPLES Below are key examples of disruptions to FAA funding from the past decade and how each negatively affected the NAS and its frontline workforce. A p r i l 2 0 1 3 S e q u e s t r a t i o n C u t s Sequestration was the result of a congressional mon- ey-saving approach that resulted in automatic cuts to government spending that were mandated by law. They were across the board cuts to all budget lines and did not prioritize safety critical projects and programs. It cut nearly $493 million from the FAA's Ops budget without regard for the safety or efficien- cy of the NAS. When sequestration went into effect in April 2013, preventative maintenance was halted, and engineers had to contend with a "fix-on-fail" policy, requir- ing that they wait until equipment actually breaks before replacing it. The FAA also considered closing towers in order to achieve the mandated spending cuts. Sequestration forced the FAA to issue a "save money furlough" affecting every employee, includ- ing air traffic controllers. During the week of April 21-27, 2013, delays nearly tripled at our nation's airports, from 5,103 to 13,694. NATCA led the wide-ranging legislative campaign for enactment of The Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013, which authorized the Secretary of Transportation to trans- fer $253 million from other FAA accounts to the FAA's operations account in order to end the FAA furloughs and allow aviation safety professionals to return to work full time. This legislative campaign was recognized as one of the top lobbying victories of the 113th Congress. From the beginning, NATCA was a leading voice in opposing sequestration and in 2019, Congress passed, and the president enacted a bipartisan budget deal that raised spending caps and effectively ended sequestration. With that, sequestration officially ended. A save money furlough also could have been required last summer if Congress and the White House had not reached an agreement on the debt ceiling. 2 0 1 3 F e d e r a l G ove r n m e n t S h u td o w n By September 2013, the end of FY 2013, Congress still had not passed appropriations bills to fund the government for FY 2014. On Oct. 1, the government was forced to shut down for 16 days (at the time it was the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history), shuttering much of the FAA along with it, which resulted in furloughs to FAA employees. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates that these furloughs cost the government a total of $2.5 billion. 2 0 1 8 G ove r n m e n t S h u td o w n s In early 2018, Congress and the White House failed – on two separate occasions – to enact funding legislation and the government was shut down for three days between Jan. 20-22, and then again on Feb. 9. On March 23, Congress narrowly avoided its third federal government shutdown in a two-month period when it passed an omnibus spending package that funded the government and also extended FAA authorization through Sept. 30, 2018. Prior to that, Congress was on its fifth consecutive CR and fifth consecutive extension to FAA authorization. 3 5 - D a y G ove r n m e n t S h u td o w n ( D e c . 2 0 1 8 – J a n . 2 0 1 9) Although the NAS is the safest and most efficient sys- tem in the world, the longest government shutdown FA A F u n d i n g R e q u i re s R o b u s t A u t h o r i z a t i o n a n d A p p ro p r i a t i o n s L eve l s Issue

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