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Regional Aviation News
Airports Lobby For AIP Funds Under FAA Reauthorization
March 6 , 2003
Airport lobbyists today will continue pressing Congress to ensure Airport Improvement Program funds are earmarked for infrastructure improvements rather than security. The House Transportation aviation subcommittee today will hold a hearing on FAA reauthorization and AIP. David Plavin, president of Airports Council International-North America, Craig Coy, CEO of Massport, and Charles Barclay, president of the American Association of Airport Executives, will testify along with airport directors. An independent review board found that using AIP must be reauthorized by Sept. 30 to receive money from the aviation trust fund, which received $10.1 billion in tax and revenue last year. The President’s budget projects a $10.2 billion in trust fund revenue for fiscal 2003 and to $11.1 billion in FY 2004.
Subcommittee Chair John Mica (R-Fla.) said that full committee Chair Don Young (R-Alaska) wants to introduce a bill to streamline aviation, ground and port infrastructure projects. Mica said the committee might look at “some creative financing” for airports, adding, “at some point we’ll get back into a congestion mode” similar to that faced in the summer of 2000. Airports are confronting “a whole host of issues,” including expansion plans and problems that stem from AIP money going toward federally mandated security projects. During a recent Senate Commerce haring FAA, GAO and airport lobbyists warned that taking AIP money for security places a burden on infrastructure, forcing airports to postpone important construction projects. Lobbyists are concerned that Transportation Security Administration will try to dip into AIP one more time to pay for airport security needs. -DM
Source: Aviation Daily, March 6, 2003
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