A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/592965
also seeks procedural changes and an end to speaker fundraising travel on the weekend so he can put his family first. NATCA CONTINUES TO CALL ON CONGRESS TO EXAMINE STAFFING CRISIS : NATCA continues to call on Congress to hold a congressional hearing about the chronic understaffing of air traffic control facilities. New data show t hat national staffing totals have fallen nearly 10 percent since 2011. Official Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data shows the agency will miss its air traffic controller hiring goal for fiscal year 2015. This will be the fifth consecutive fiscal yea r in which the FAA has not hired enough air traffic controllers to keep up with the pace of workforce attrition. As of August 22, 2015, the FAA had only hired 1,178 of a planned 1,772 air traffic controllers, putting the agency 34 percent behind its goal. Of the 10,859 certified controllers, 30 percent are eligible to retire at any time. For more information about the staffing crisis and our request to Congress, please click her e . APPROPRIATIONS : Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has bundled 11 of the 12 FY 2016 spending bills into four groups, known as " minibuses, " for potential floor consideration, still at an unspecified date. He is doing this to prepare for the possib ility of acting on some larger deal. The appropriation process will again become the focus if the budget deal is agreed to. We expect new allocations to be out late this week or early next week detailing how much each appropriations committee will have to appropriate. NATCA will continue meeting with appropriations committee members and professional staff. THUD APPROPRIATIONS : An infrastructure minibus is grouped to include the FY 16 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill ( H.R. 2577) among two other appropriations bills. As a reminder, the House has already passed their version of the THUD appropriations bill earlier this year in June. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the bill, but it has not advan ced to the Senate floor. The Senate bill would provide $16.011 billion for the FAA (compared with $15.855 in the House - passed version). NATCA has been working to ensure that the FAA is properly funded during these tough budget times. GA staff will continue to follow the appropriations process closely. SEQUESTRATION BACKGROUND : As you know, Congress will need to address the issue of sequestration before the December 11 deadline as it determines funding levels for FY 16. Sequestration has been used as a too l to reduce the federal budget, and in 2013, the measure drastically cut the FAA budget and caused furloughs at the FAA. Sequestration cuts could have been triggered on October 1, but the CR avoids any significant sequestration cuts through December 11 by continuing funding below the sequestration caps. NATCA continues to work with members of Congress and staff on this issue and we continue to remind them of the affect it had on the aviation system and our members in 2013. We have made it continuously clear that if sequestration cuts are implemented, the cuts will be larger than in 2013. FAA LONG - TERM REAUTHORIZATION : With FAA authority extended through March 31, 2016 (via H.R. 3614, the Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2015), the authorizing committees will continue their work on a broad FAA Reauthorization bill. Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio on the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee have made it clear that they only want one extension for the FAA this time around, whi ch is the extension that we are now operating under until March. At this time, the committee hopes to introduce their version of an FAA Reauthorization bill this