NATCA Bookshelf

55 R e f e r e n c 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 Glossary Aircraft Certification Safety and Accountability Act (ACSA) Bipartisan legislation included in the December 2020 omnibus spending bill that made several critical improvements to the FAA's Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program and ensured that the Aircraft Certification Service (AIR) had the same type of voluntary safety reporting system that NATCA and the FAA have developed and implemented successfully within the ATO. NATCA strongly supported this legislation and worked closely with congressional leadership to ensure our input was included in the final bill. Appropriations Bill Legislation that allows the government and its administrative agencies to spend money. It is a bill that sets money aside for specific spending. Collaborative Resource Workgroup (CRWG) In December 2022, Acting Administrator of the FAA Billy Nolen directed the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) to restart the CRWG and partner with NATCA to collaboratively determine the number of Certified Professional Controllers (CPCs) needed to meet operational, statutory, and contractual requirements, including resources to develop, evaluate, and implement processes and initiatives affecting the NAS. The FAA and NATCA worked with the MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation Systems Development to develop CPC operational staffing targets at each of FAA's 313 air traffic control facilities. The CRWG completed its work by the end of January 2023 and presented its report to the Acting Administrator and NATCA President in February 2023. NATCA believes that these jointly developed CPC targets must be used in the FAA's annual Controller Workforce Plan (CWP) to provide Congress with a more complete and transparent view of FAA's operational workforce needs. Continuing Resolution (CR) When Congress and the president fail to agree to and pass one or more of the regular appropriations bills, a CR is sometimes used to temporarily fund the government. If enacted, a CR continues the pre- existing appropriations at the same levels (or with minor modifications) as the previous fiscal year for a set amount of time. The CR's funding extends until a specific date or regular appropriations bills are enacted, whichever comes first. Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 This was in the omnibus spending bill (see also "Omnibus") that was signed into law on March 23, 2018, which set appropriations levels through the remainder of the fiscal year and extended FAA authorization through the same period. This bill also included several policy provisions of importance to NATCA, such as language that allowed the FAA to post a vacancy announcement to recruit from the local hiring area for New York TRACON (N90) and New York Center (ZNY), as well as a provision that allowed the FAA to reinstate the retired military controller (RMC) program. Controller Workforce Plan (CWP) The FAA's Controller Workforce Plan is an annual report that the FAA must provide to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation by March 31 each year. The CWP was originally intended to provide Congress with a comprehensive look at the FAA's hiring goals and attrition projections, as well as provide actual on-board numbers and staffing ranges for all FAA air traffic facilities. However, the FAA's current iteration of the CWP is fundamentally flawed because: (1) it is not using as its basis the updated CRWG collaboratively established CPC targets that the FAA and NATCA developed to meet the FAA's operational staffing needs at each facility; and (2) the CWP staffing numbers are inaccurate and misleading because they conflate actual on-board numbers (headcount) with CPC staffing levels and they fail to consider all of the operational, statutory, contractual, and regulatory requirements that controllers must perform as part of their duties. Debt Ceiling Crisis The gap between federal revenues and existing financial commitments is financed by issuing federal debt. The U.S. Treasury does this by selling various kinds of debt securities (such as bonds) to investors. Congress created the debt limit by statute, which places a constraint on the amount of money that the U.S. Treasury may borrow to fund federal obligations. On June 3, 2023, Congress passed, and the president signed a bill that suspended the debt limit until January 1, 2025, and capped discretionary spending during FY 2024 and FY 2025. In the event of a future default, the effect on NATCA members would depend on how Congress deals with the resulting appropriations restrictions.

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