Obama signs short-term FAA extension

The six-month stop-gap funding measure, approved by the House and Senate earlier in the week, buys Congress until March 2016 to negotiate a long-term Federal Aviation Administration bill.    President Obama signed into law a six-month funding extension for the Federal Aviation Administration Wednesday night, the same day the previous bill was set to expire.
   The House of Representatives approved the legislation, known as the Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2015 (H.R. 3614), Monday and the Senate quickly followed suit on Tuesday in an effort to prevent any interruption in federal aviation funding. The short-term bill buys Congress until March 2016 to negotiate a long-term federal aviation funding measure.
   Monday’s House vote followed an earlier effort by the Senate attach an FAA funding extension to an overall government funding bill that failed to pass last week. The Senate’s bill included a similar six-month FAA funding extension, but that section was dropped due to partisan debate over federal funding for women’s health services group Planned Parenthood.
   Secretary of the Department of Transportation Anthony Foxx said he supported the short-term funding extension, although he would prefer a long-term bill.
   “Obviously with the FAA, there’s an appetite to look at structural changes,” Foxx said after the Senate vote Tuesday. “Given the short-time frame, it makes sense to extend out for awhile.”
   Foxx also said the extension will give Congress more time to finalize a long-term transportation and infrastructure bill, something that has proven difficult in Washington this year, as lawmakers can’t seem to agree on the source of federal highway funds.
   “I think honestly one of the things Congress can best do for itself is to deal with the highway bill and get that business out of the way, so that committees of jurisdiction can start to tackle FAA and so they can do it without a lot of other things entering in,” said Foxx.