White House: ATC Proposal Vote Count Looks 'Very Good'

White House officials are hopeful that the U.S. air traffic control reorganization proposal will be brought to the House floor for a vote in the first few weeks of October, and a key official expressed optimism that the measure will pass. “The vote count in the House is looking very, very good,” D.J. Gribbin, special assistant to the President for infrastructure policy at the White House, told the Airlines for America (A4A) Commercial Aviation Summit recently.

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With a vote on the latest measure aimed at privatizing the nation's air traffic control system slated for next week, the time to act is now, he said.

House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Republican leaders had hoped to bring the measure to the House floor this month as part of a comprehensive six-year Federal Aviation Administraton (FAA) reauthorization bill. But committee staff noted that the schedule got backed up in the wake of the recent hurricanes.

Gribbin, the keynote at the recent A4A conference, added that while this idea has been around for a long time, at “no other time in history have so many things lined up in favor of this proposal,” with the backing of the administration, the Department of Defense, the chairman of the T&I committee, the airlines, and the controllers' union.

He reiterated arguments supporting the proposal, including the need for improved procurement and a more efficient system, and said that administration officials had tried to address key business and general aviation concerns by protecting access and including exemptions for user fees. The response, Gribbin claims, is, “We just don’t like it.”

Business and general aviation groups, meanwhile, continue to express their concerns, joining efforts last week to ask House and Senate leaders to strip the air traffic control (ATC) measure out of the FAA reauthorization bill.

In a letter signed by five general aviation groups, the organizations urged the leaders to adopt at least a six-month extension of the FAA’s current authorization. This would provide continuity for NextGen and airports projects while longer-term FAA reauthorization is hashed out, they said.

The ATC reorganization proposal still lacks consensus, drawing substantial support not just from GA groups but also from consumer groups, conservative mayors, “and countless others,” they said, adding, “We believe that progress on modernization should continue by implementing targeted solutions to identified challenges and strongly support striking [the ATC proposal], to allow completion of comprehensive, bipartisan, long-term FAA reauthorization.“

This would ensure consensus, they said. “The skies over the U.S. are a national asset, and general aviation is committed to ensuring that the future funding and subsequent design of the national air transportation system will benefit all Americans.”