Obama signs FAA bill

   President Obama signed into law Tuesday legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration for $63 billion over four years and paving the way for accelerated development of the NextGen air traffic control system.
   The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 sets the direction and spending priorities of the agency for the first time in a decade. The previous multi-year blueprint expired more than four years ago, requiring almost two dozen short-term extensions that essentially froze spending levels and budget line items in place.
   NextGen is based on satellites rather than ground-based radar to track aircraft. It involves an expensive series of hardware and software upgrades to aircraft and air traffic control towers, and new operating procedures that are expected to make air travel safer and more efficient. The authorizing legislation attempts to move the process along by setting ways to measure the program, performance goals and deadlines.
   “For four years, Democrats in control of Congress left the nation’s aviation system in the lurch by failing to pass a long-term bill to reform FAA programs and set national aviation policy and priorities,” Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement. “Over the years, Democrats irresponsibly passed 17 short-term extensions of the last FAA law for an industry that accounts for as much as 11 percent of the nation’s economic activity,” he said, overlooking the fact that three extensions took place in 2011 when Republicans took control of the House. 
   The back-and-forth between the parties and the House and Senate came to a head last summer when Mica tried to insist on large cuts to a program that provides ticket subsidies for small airports served by airlines. Congress failed to pass a stopgap measure before the existing authorization expired, forcing a two-week shutdown of non-essential FAA operations.
   The new law trims subsidies to the least utilized airports and prevents new communities from entering the program.
   The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a statement saying the spending plan provides certainty to the aviation industry on FAA policies and helps put people to work through airport improvement projects. NextGen needs strong administration management now to implement technology and procedural changes, and meet deadlines, it said. — Eric Kulisch