Senate Republicans Derail FAA Reauthorization Bill

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans managed to derail a long-debated Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill yesterday when Democratic leaders failed to obtain the 60 votes necessary to move the bill to a vote, putting billions of dollars for airports and highway funding in jeopardy.

By a vote of 49 to 42, mostly along party lines, the Senate failed to pass a cloture vote, which would have limited debate on the bill so that it could be brought to the floor for a vote.

"Bush Republicans have once again put big business first and American consumers last, choosing to look out for airlines instead of their passengers," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said yesterday after the setback.

Sources expect lawmakers will pull the bill from the floor to renegotiate it. An extension of the current FAA authorization law is set to expire June 30, meaning that if legislators cannot reach an agreement on a bill before then, they likely will be forced to pass another extension of the current law.

The bill would have provided an additional $100 million a year to the Airport Improvement Program, which provides funds to about 3,400 airports in grants sometimes used to repay tax-exempt bonds. In addition, it would have provided $5 billion for the Highway Trust Fund, as well as authorize $1 billion of tax-credit bonds for railway infrastructure. Highway trust funds also are often used to back tax-exempt bonds.

Republicans did not approve of several non-aviation provisions in the bill, including the additional highway trust funds, the tax-credit bonds, and a revenue-raising five-cent-per-barrel increase in the tax on oil spills.

On Friday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Tex., introduced her own version of the FAA bill, which did not include any of the non-aviation items.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized Democrats yesterday for refusing to consider Hutchinson's bill, claiming that they were the ones responsible for the inability to pass the FAA legislation.

"Unfortunately, the majority has not accepted her offer to date, and so we find ourselves in a stalemate," he said in a statement.

President Bush has also expressed his disapproval for the bill in its current form, saying that he would consider vetoing it because of "untenable" provisions. One specific provision Bush opposes, according to a Statement of Administration Policy issued last week, is the 36-cent-per-gallon increase on jet fuel for general aviation purposes.

It is unclear at this point if lawmakers will be able to renegotiate the bill, place it back onto the floor for approval by the full Senate, and resolve differences between the bill and one approved by the House in September, before the current law expires on June 30.

"It's anyone's guess as to whether they're going to work it out," said one source, who did not wish to be identified.

 

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