any new news on senate fedex transportation bill??
- Thread starter Coldworld
- Start date
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
It sounds like it has been put on the back burner behind Health Care and Afghanistan.
Senate lawmakers are considering another three-month extension to FAA’s operating authority, the clearest signal yet that a full reauthorization bill is not expected to be passed this year.
The current extension expires Dec. 31, so a further one would extend through the end of March. This would be the eighth extension to FAA’s operating authority since the last one expired about two years ago. And this may not even be the last — the first part of 2010 will be busy for Congress and the administration, so it is very likely that another extension will be needed at least into the summer.
Further delay will be frustrating to airport groups, which have been pushing hard for the reauthorization bill to be passed this year. Airlines are unlikely to be upset, however, since there are some significant elements in the House bill they oppose.
Industry sources say Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is proposing the March extension. The current extension was instigated by House lawmakers back in September, and they kept it short because they wanted to put pressure on the Senate to pass a full reauthorization bill this year. Even though the Senate wanted a longer extension at that stage, they went along with the House proposal.
The holdup remains the Senate Finance Committee. Commerce approved its version of FAA reauthorization, but Finance needs to weigh in on the taxes and fees component. Apparently Finance has done the necessary work on this, but is insisting on holding a hearing before sending the bill to the Senate floor. And this committee is still tied up with the health care debate, so scheduling a hearing is difficult.
