A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/610992
members of Congress are pushing for a controversial provision in a potential omnibus authorizing more congressional oversight of refugees. The refugee issue could complicate the path toward a final spending deal. GA staff is preparing materia ls just in case the path changes and a government shutdown or partial government shutdown becomes likely. FAA LONG - TERM REAUTHORIZATION : As a reminder, Congress cannot begin work on the FAA Reauthorization until the highway bill is finished. Senate Commer ce Chairman John Thune has made it clear that the House will move first, and then the Senate will act on its own version. FAA authority is temporarily extended through March 31, 2016 (via H.R. 3614, the Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2015). Chairman S huster 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, which is the extension that we are now operating under until March. NATCA Pr esident Paul Rinaldi and EVP Trish Gilbert, along with GA staff, continue to work closely with House and Senate committee staff to discuss NATCA's priorities for the FAA reauthorization bill. HIGHWAY BILL UPDATE : The House passed another two - week short - te rm extension of the highway bill on Monday, November 16 in order to extend contract authority for highway and transit programs until December 4. The Highway Bill has been in a bicameral conference to work out the differences between the House and Senate ve rsions. This most recent extension will buy lawmakers extra time to iron out a deal, which originally had a deadline of November 20. The two - week extension will move to the Senate as the chambers continue to work on the long - term bill. Until the highway bi ll is completed, the T&I Committee cannot move forward with FAA Reauthorization. ROUNDTABLE ON STAFFING CRISIS : The House Aviation Subcommittee will hold a roundtable discussion this month to discuss the staffing crisis at the FAA. We expect NATCA will b e invited to participate in the roundtable, which is a direct result of NATCA's call for a hearing to push the FAA to evaluate the issues at hand. The roundtable is expected to address hiring, placement, and training of air traffic controllers. NATCA belie ves that these three are bound and the FAA must take a holistic approach to improve the entire staffing problem. GA staff will keep you updated o n the timing of the roundtable. Staffing background: New data show that national staffing totals have fallen ne arly 10 percent since 2011. Official FAA data shows the agency will miss its air traffic controller hiring goal for fiscal year 2015. This will be the fifth consecutive fiscal year in which the FAA has not hired enough air traffic controllers to keep up wi th 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 . SEQUESTRATION BACKGROUND : NATCA has long advocated for sequester relief. As you know, sequestration has been used as a tool to reduce the federal budget, and in 2013, the measure drastically cut the FAA budget and caused furloughs at the FAA. The b udget deal recently signed into law by President Obama provides sequestration relief by increasing discretionary spending by $80 billion above sequester - level spending caps. While this is certainly helpful for NATCA, this simply kicks the can down the road for two years. If and when Congress passes an omnibus before the December 11 deadline, it will be up to the executive branch to figure out what the implications are for each agency