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ISSUE Sequestration cuts have negatively affected FAA employees and the NAS. In 2013, sequestration cut nearly $493 million from the FAA's Operations budget, $142 million from its Facilities and Equipment budget, and $8.6 million from its Research, Engineering, and Development Budget. While sequestration was put on hold for FY 2014 and 2015, congressional appropriators will either need to meet mandatory spending caps or face across-the-board cuts again in FY 2016, potentially starting on October 1, 2015. Sequestration budget cuts in the upcoming fiscal year will once again negatively affect the FAA's budget. MESSAGE Sequestration has created and exacerbated long-term and short-term problems for the FAA. Indiscriminate, across-the-board spending cuts are unacceptable, and we have seen their affects firsthand: furloughs in 2013, a fix-on-fail maintenance policy, halted workgroups working on modernization projects, and threatened tower closures. We need a solution to end sequestration before the impending September 30 deadline. BACKGROUND In 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011 used sequestration as a tool to reduce federal expenditures. This law authorized $1.2 trillion in spending cuts identified specifically in the legislation, with an additional $1.2 trillion in cuts that were to be determined by a bipartisan group of senators and representatives known as the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform (also known as the Simpson- Bowles Commission). The Super Commiee failed to reach an agreement, so a trigger mechanism in the law was activated to implement across-the-board spending cuts known as "sequestration." Sequestration cuts took effect in March 2013, but were not necessary in FY 2014 and FY 2015 because Congress passed legislation, with some caveats, that essentially postponed sequestration cuts for two years. At this time, appropriators in Congress have the option of writing their spending bills to comply with top-line spending caps set by sequestration. If appropriators create spending bills that exceed those caps, they will once again face across-the-board sequestration cuts. Sequestration has caused many significant problems for the FAA: • FURLOUGHS In April 2013, sequestration forced the FAA to furlough employees, including air traffic controllers, for one week before Congress intervened by passing the NATCA-initiated bill, Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013. • FLIGHT DELAYS During the week of the sequestration furloughs (April 21-27, 2013), flight delays tripled when compared to delays in the same week in 2014. The passage of the Reducing Flight Delays Act allowed the FAA to move money from other budget accounts to Operations in order to resume paying its personnel, thus ending the furloughs. Note: Under sequestration, agencies were not allowed to move funds between different accounts, so the FAA was prohibited from transferring money into the Operations account to pay employees and avoid the necessity of furloughs. However, after experiencing significant air traffic delays, Congress passed the Reducing Flight Delays Act, which allowed the FAA to take money from the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) fund. Under ordinary circumstances, this fund is walled off. This bill allowed for a special exception. • THREATENED TOWER CLOSURES Sequestration forced the FAA to consider closing towers in order to achieve the mandated spending cuts. Ultimately the FAA did not need to close the towers, thanks to the Reducing Flight Delays Act, but may once again have to consider closing them in the future. • MAINTENANCE DELAYS Preventative maintenance delays mean that engineers and technicians must contend with a fix-on-fail policy, forcing them to wait until equipment breaks before replacing it. This creates an inherent safety concern and also creates delays. • HIRING FREEZE FAA initiated a hiring freeze in March of 2013 that lasted through the end of the year. The FAA training academy was closed for most of 2013, meaning it was unable to supply air traffic facilities with new trainees. This hiring freeze worsened an already critical staffing situation. FULL BACKGROUND n i w . n a t c a . n e t MAY 18-20, 2015 23

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