The Washington Shuffle

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A Simple Question — Where Is That $100 Million For GA?…

Last month, President Bush signed into law the FAA’s four-year reauthorization bill, which included, among many other items, $100 million in relief to GA businesses hurt by the airspace restrictions following 9/11. But, in the words of one Washington insider, nobody should start planning just yet how to spend his or her share of that money. In the Byzantine morass that is our U.S. government, signing that bill into law is not the final step. No, now that the money has been authorized, it next must be appropriated, which is another complex and lengthy process, whose outcome is by no means assured. Surprise, surprise. So, in plain English (as it were), even though the relief bill is the law of the land, the money may not ever find its way to all the flight schools, FBOs, crop-dusters and banner-towers who lost millions when their aircraft were grounded and spent millions more on mandated security measures.

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