With the Sept. 30 deadline looming for Congress to reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding, stop thousands of FAA employees from being furloughed and keep airport projects under way, GOP members of the U.S. House of Representatives had a solution.
They offered up H.R. 3823, which would allow the FAA to continue operating for another six months. But the bill, which was under fast-track rules that require two-thirds of members to support it, failed Monday on a 245 to 171 vote.
In summary, House Republicans got blocked by House Democrats on the bill.
Republican House members were infuriated by the Democrats’ denial of the FAA extension proposal, which included hurricane tax relief for U.S. taxpayers. Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin in a statement called it “a sad day when House Democrats will—in the name of politics—vote against disaster relief and air traffic safety measures.”
“It’s shameful that politics will trump meaningful relief for families suffering from these devastating hurricanes. House Democrats are willing to shut down air-traffic control to make a political point,” Ryan said in a statement.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California issued her own statement and called it a “sprawling” bill that went too far beyond just extending the federal aviation program. She said H.R. 3823 included too many “completely unrelated and inadequate” items that Democrats didn’t support.
But she also tried to sway the debate toward other issues that resulted in Ryan accusing Democrats of “playing politics.”
At the same time, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, ranking Transportation Committee Democrat Peter DeFazio of Oregon and other Democrats signed a Dear Colleague letter opposing the fast-track FAA extension measure.
But the FAA fight is not over yet.
H.R. 3823 will likely resurface this week for another vote under normal order that requires a simple majority for passage. That means the Republicans may have to offer a revamped, less controversial version, insiders say.
There’s increasing pressure to do so because the long-term 21st Century AIRR (Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization) Act, H.R. 2997 — which would reauthorize the FAA and proposes divorcing the ATC system from the FAA so it operates as a separate, not-for-profit entity — hasn’t received enough votes to get to the House floor. A full reauthorization bill could come early in October, according to bill sponsor House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.).
Since that bill isn’t on the floor, that means if H.R. 3823 is able to get House passage this week, then the onus falls to the Senate to pass an FAA bill before the current FAA authority expires on Saturday.