NATCA Bookshelf

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 53 53 53 53 REFERENCES Glossary Airport and Airway Trust Fund (Trust Fund) The FAA is funded primarily by the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (Trust Fund), which receives revenues from a series of excise taxes paid by users of the NAS. The Trust Fund was created in 1970 in an attempt to provide a dedicated source of funding for the NAS that is independent of the general treasury fund. Although the FAA still receives a variable amount of funding for operations and maintenance from the general treasury fund, in recent years, the Trust Fund has accounted for between 80-90% of the total appropriations for the FAA's Operations budget and 100% of the FAA's other budgeted expenditures. Appropriations Bill This legislation 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. As part of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, Congress directed FAA to use the CRWG targets as the basis of its 2025 Controller Workforce Plan (CWP) to provide Congress with a more complete and transparent view of FAA's operational workforce needs, while the Transportation Review Board completes its study on controller staffing. Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 This was 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. Continuing Resolution (CR) When Congress and the president cannot agree to or pass one or more appropriations bills before the previous bills expire, a CR is often passed to temporarily fund the government at 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 the expiration date specified in the law or until regular appropriations bills are enacted, whichever comes first. 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. 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 2024 iteration of the CWP: (1) did not use 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 were inaccurate because they combined actual on-board numbers (headcount) with CPC staffing levels and do not 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

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