Two Democratic senators threaten to obstruct fast progress of a temporary FAA bill due to airport disagreements.
Federal lawmakers are working to pass a significant aviation bill that will shape policy for the next five years. The bill covers various topics related to air traffic control, preventing plane collisions, and establishing policies for airline refunds. This 1000-page legislation is expected to receive bipartisan support, but some of its provisions are still being debated.
The FAA's current programs are set to expire on Friday, creating a sense of urgency among lawmakers. To buy more time to negotiate, the House of Representatives passed a one-week extension for federal aviation programs on Wednesday. This extension will need unanimous consent from the Senate for approval before the deadline.
One issue causing debate in Congress is the number of direct flights at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Some senators from Virginia, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, are adamantly opposed to adding more long-distance flights in and out of the airport. They are pushing for a vote on an amendment to remove the additional flights from the overall bill.
Kaine and Warner have stated that a near-miss incident at Reagan National last month, where two jets almost collided, highlights the dangers of increasing traffic on the busiest runway in America. If the airport authority's concerns about congestion are not addressed, Kaine and Warner will not grant unanimous consent on the temporary bill unless a vote on their amendment is promised.
Reagan National Airport is a convenient option for lawmakers who want to travel back home for the weekend, as it is just a short drive away from DC. However, due to a decades-old perimeter rule, flights at the airport can only be 1,250 miles from DC, meaning lawmakers from cities like Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, and Dallas must fly out of one of the other two airports.
Congress is currently negotiating a compromise bill that would allow for five additional flights daily at Reagan National — a far lesser number than some had proposed. The airport's operators, who also manage Dulles International, argue that the main runway at Reagan is already fully utilized and that adding more flights would worsen the congestion.
Republican Senator Mike Lee, whose home state of Utah is not within the perimeter, drafted a proposal for adding 56 flights, with a maximum of eight per hour.
The detailed coverage of this issue by CNN's Clare Foran, Haley Talbot, and Kristin Wilson completes the story.
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Kaine and Warner have made it clear that they will not grant unanimous consent for the temporary FAA bill's approval unless a vote on their amendment to address airport congestion concerns at Reagan National is promised. The pending debates over the FAA bill could potentially delay the passage of the significant aviation legislation, affecting its five-year policy shaping.
Source: edition.cnn.com
