The move to separate the air traffic control function from the FAA is gaining momentum and it now appears that Congress is seriously considering a stand-alone air traffic organization that, by definition, would be independently funded. Although it’s a long way from reality, there is clearly widespread support for the idea in general to get the capitally intensive job of rebuilding the country’s aviation infrastructure out of the hands of politicians. Congress is now debating the next FAA reauthorization bill after the previous reauthorization languished for years on 90-day extensions because of political issues. Proponents of separating the ATO from the administrative and enforcement functions of the FAA say that modernizing the system requires predictable and sustainable funding over periods of years rather than the hand-to-mouth existence of the agency in the tumultuous Washington environment of recent years. “I honestly think it is triumph of hope over experience to believe that the funding issue is going to change. … You cannot build what we want to build for this country and retain the leadership opportunities in this critical area of technology of air traffic control with this approach,” said former North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan, who co-authored a report (PDF) advocating the separation of air traffic control from the rest of the FAA. A Senate hearing heard testimony on the topic on Tuesday, and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said fixing the funding is important but the agency has made progress on NextGen and other modernization despite the political impediments.
Huerta told the hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee FAA Reauthorization that fixing the budgeting issue should be top of mind for the government. “But we must all agree on the most important problems reauthorization should fix. In our view those are budget instability and the lack of flexibility to execute our priorities,” he said. “These challenges exist for the entire agency – not just for the air traffic control and NextGen organizations, as some have suggested.” Huerta told the committee installing and using all the modern gear is only one aspect of building and maintaining a new system and discussions about carving the ATO out of the mother organization should be done in that context. Meanwhile, Rep. John Mica has introduced a bill to turn the ATO into an employee-owned and operated non-profit corporation.
