Prior FAA Admin Hopeful For Reauthorization

A former FAA administrator says the make-up of the next Congress will greatly increase the odds of the agency’s reauthorization bill passing.

“I’m more hopeful than I have been,” says Marion Blakey, president of the Aerospace Industries Association and FAA administrator from 2002-2007. The change in the House could result in the passage of a more “streamlined bill,” stripped of some of the more “objectionable and extraneous provisions,” she says, although Blakey stopped short of saying what those provisions might be.

The FAA bill’s stalling in Congress in 2007 was “sobering,” Blakey says. Even with bipartisan support that year, the bill’s failure to pass Congress was a surprise.

AIA hopes stripping the bill of the more controversial provisions will enable FAA to focus on the implementation of the NextGen air traffic management system. “We hope to see an acceleration of NextGen,” says Blakey.

The bill still could face difficulties between the House and the Senate, says Blakey. Further complicating the passage of the bill could be the upcoming Highway Reauthorization bill. That bill requires so much congressional attention that it could swamp consideration of the FAA reauthorization bill, Blakey notes.