A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/639552
President and CEO of Nati onal Business Aviation Association Ed Bolen, and Director of Transportation Policy for the Reason Foundation Robert Poole. Rinaldi's testimony was received with great respect on Capitol Hill. While members of Congress may disagree on some of the policy in the proposal, Government Affairs (GA) staff has received positive feedback from numerous members of Congress and Congressional staff that Rinaldi did a very effective job of laying out the concerns with the status quo, how the stop - and - go funding stream ha s had a negative effect on the system, and how workforce protections have been maintained in the legislation. One of the highlights was when Ranking Member DeFazio pointed out that in all his years in Congress, he had never seen a piece of legislation that was so comprehensive in terms of worker protections. Committee Mark Up : A full committee markup of the legislation took place on Thursday, Feb. 11. NATCA was very active supporting and opposing amendments that we needed to weigh in on for our members. The bill was voted out of committee. The next step for the legislation is to receive a vote on the House floor. GA staff is currently waiting to hear from House leadership if the bill will come up for a v ote the last week of February. FAA extension most likel y needed : Even though the House T&I Committee approved its proposal and the full House is expected to vote on the legislation the final week of February, all indications are that the House and Senate will not be able to conference two different versions of legislation and produce a final FAA reauthorization bill in time for the March 31 deadline. Therefore, another extension for FAA reauthorization will be necessary at this point. Legislation to provide the extension would most lik ely be considered in mid - M arch. Background : As you know, FAA authority is temporarily extended through March 31, 2016 (via H.R. 3614, the Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2015). Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune expects that the Senate will act on its own version of FAA legisl ation following Chairman Shuster's int roduction of the House version. WHITE HOUSE FY 2017 BUDGET REQUEST : The White House released its budget proposal for the next fiscal year (FY 2017) on Tuesday, February 9. Republican leaders in the House and Senate Bu dget Committees have stated that they will not hold their customary hearings that typically follow the White House budget release. This announcement comes at a time of increasing hostility between the Republican - controlled Congress and the Democratic White House over budget issues. While the proposal recommends a decrease in FAA funding, mostly due to a decrease in airport funding, the FAA Operations account saw a proposed increase from $9.909 billion in FY16 to $9.994 billion FY17. Background : Each year, C ongress makes major changes to the president ' s request as it crafts spending bills to fund federal agencies. The FY 2017 budget blueprint will be the last of Barack Obama ' s presidency, and will shape many of this year's major policy battles on Capitol Hill . It is expected to adhere to the broad discretionary spending limits for defense and domestic programs established in a two - year bipartisan budget deal (PL 114 - 74) last fall. APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE: Lawmakers have high hopes of restoring order to the budg et process in 2016 and hope to pass all 12 annual appropriations bills by October 1, the start of the new fiscal year. This task has not been accomplished on time in two decades. Republican leaders have vowed to make it a priority this year, and Speaker Pa ul Ryan has said he wants to begin consideration of spending bills on the House floor much earlier than normal. Spending Caps : House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers issued a blow to the conservative Freedom Caucus last week when he announced that budget numbers