If you work outside – stay ahead of severe weather and don't wait until it's too late to find
shelter in a sto rm. Sometimes, as we saw when the Austin SSC flooded last year , it
doesn't matter if you're indoors either!
Please take a moment to review the Take a Stand for Safety: Weather – Complete the
Picture campaign materials – issuing the weather to pilots, even commercial pilots, may
help prevent passenger injuries and loss of life.
It's also the start of 'appropriations season' here in Washington, which kicked off late last
week with the President's bud get proposal to Congress . The FY 2018 budget calls for
$16.2 billion for FAA to invest in the safest, most complex aerospace system in the world
and keeps our operational costs below FY 2016 levels.
More than half of our budget request ($9.9 billion) was allocated to the operation,
maintenance, communications, and logistical support of the air traffic control and air
navigation systems. Almost $2 billion was requested to sustain our infrastructure, power
systems, information technology, navigational aids, communications, surveillance, and
weather systems. The design, development , and deployment of NextGen programs and
systems was funded at $868 million, of which:
$154 million is dedicated to Data Comm to complete the deployment of Tower Services
and begin initial deployment of En Route services to the first three sites.
$40.5 million was requested for Time Based Flow Management (TBFM), enabling the
performance - based navigation program by efficiently maximizing traffic flow into and out
of the busiest metropolitan a irspaces and corresponding airports.
$68.8 million was requested for NAS Voice System (NVS), allowing us to begin testing
the software in 2018 and evaluating communications with aircraft at three S eattle - area
sites in 2019.
$90 million was requested for the Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) program to
support continuat ion of the software and hardware development, system design, and
operational testing in preparation for deployment to the key sites in Phoenix and
Charlotte.
An additional $23.5 million was requested to address our expanding responsibilities in
the areas of UAS and commercial space vehicle integration. A new line item in the
budget supports information security research to help prevent disruptive cyber incidents
that may affect a ir t raffic c ontrol.
As Administrator Huerta discussed at the FAA Town Hall event on June 1 , we will soon
see a multi - year FAA reauthorization proposal to shift the air traffic control function of the
FAA to an independent, non - governmental organization.
This proposal will take some time to develop and work its way through the
Congressional process and we will be working with the Administration to address our
collective interests and concerns in a holistic way. While this is underway, I will keep you
informed and apprised of what's ahead of us.
