Please see below a message from NBAA President Ed Bolen regarding an ATC privatization bill that will be brought to the floor of the House for a vote:
All,
As you can see from the enclosed news article, the FAA privatization bill, H.R. 2997, will be brought to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote next week.
This is a moment we have spent months and years preparing for.
We have invested in technology to make it easy to communicate with elected representatives.
We have detailed the seriousness of the threat to the future of general aviation in the United States.
We have encouraged business leaders, mayors, consumer groups, airport directors, liberal and conservative think tanks and others to voice opposition to the bill—and they have.
Also weighing in have been America’s foremost industry leaders and legends, including hero-pilot Sully Sullenberger, astronauts including Jim Lovell, and former commanders of the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels.
Now we need you. If you have already called your representative at 833-GAVOICE, call again.
If you have already emailed or sent a tweet to your representative by going to ATCnotforsale.com, do it again.
If you have encouraged your family, coworkers and friends to get involved, do it again.
If you have not yet done these things, do them NOW. TODAY. Your community needs you.
Next week, we will gather in Las Vegas to celebrate all the things that make business aviation so special. At the same time, the House of Representatives will vote on one of the most important bills in our industry’s history.
Please do all you can to ensure we have a bright future.
Thank you.
Ed
BLOOMBERG
FAA Bill With Air Traffic Spinoff May Get Vote Week of Oct. 9
By Shaun Courtney
October 3, 2017
• House could vote week of Oct. 9 on bill to reauthorize FAA
• House Rules Committee seeks amendments
(BNA) -- The House could vote the week of Oct. 9 on a bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration for six years and spin off air traffic control to a non-governmental entity.
The bill's author, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), told reporters the goal was a floor vote the week of Oct. 9. A notice from the House Rules Committee calling for new amendments further solidified the timing.
“The Committee on Rules is likely to meet the week of October 9th to grant a rule that may provide a structured amendment process for floor consideration of H.R. 2997, the 21st Century AIRR Act,” Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said in an Oct. 3 letter.
The proposal to privatize air traffic control has proven controversial, and several possible votes this year have been scrapped.
Amendments for the Rules Committee are due Oct. 5.
Addressing Concerns
Shuster and other proponents of the proposal took to the House floor Oct. 3 for a series of speeches to correct the record on what he called “false claims” about the bill, and to speak about its impact on general aviation, national security, and appropriations.
A previous iteration of the air traffic proposal ran afoul of general aviation groups in 2016, but Shuster worked to bring the head of the general aviation caucus on as a sponsor for the bill in 2017.
“My colleagues and I, including Sam Graves, worked with the General Aviation community to include everything they asked for in this bill. Not one of their legislative requests was excluded,” Shuster said during floor remarks Oct. 3.
“The bill addresses concerns about access to the airspace, user fees, and board parity, among other GA requests, Shuster said during the floor speech.
“Nothing will change for them,” he said.
Shuster also explained the bill's impact on the Department of Defense and on the annual appropriations process. He said he expects to adopt an amendment that will explicitly prohibit the new private board that would run air traffic controls from receiving federal appropriations.
A Shuster spokesman told reporters that the floor speeches were an effort to allay any lingering concerns and address head on what they call misinformation about their bill.
But air traffic spinoff opponents are equally determined to see the provision die.
“I will continue to follow Shuster around and talk people off the ledge who get bad information and think that privatization is a good idea,” Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ranking member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) told reporters.
