Airport Alert: Congress Preparing to Pass Temporary Funding Bill To December 18; Coronavirus Relief Update
December 8, 2020
As we discussed on yesterday's call with AAAE Federal Affairs Members, negotiations on a possible coronavirus relief package – including additional assistance to airports and our partners – and an omnibus measure to fund the federal government through the fiscal year (FY 21) that ends on September 30, 2021, are continuing in earnest on Capitol Hill. While some progress is being reported on both a coronavirus relief deal and an omnibus package, efforts to try and wrap everything up by this Friday, December 11 – when current federal funding is scheduled to expire – have failed, and lawmakers now intend to pass another temporary funding measure to next Friday, December 18 to buy themselves more time to reach an agreement. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced that the House will vote on the one-week CR tomorrow, and the Senate is expected to consider the measure later in the week.
Coronavirus Relief Update – Negotiations Continue
Leaders of both parties have reported some progress in ongoing negotiations with the $908 billion bicameral, bipartisan framework introduced earlier this week serving as the basis for a possible final agreement. Over the past 24 hours, it has become clear that while the two sides are inching closer together, the issues of liability protection and funding for state and local governments remain as major sticking points to a final deal – as they have been for months. Additionally, a growing chorus of lawmakers in both parties is calling for the inclusion of additional direct payments to taxpayers, which threatens to inject another expensive item into efforts to provide targeted relief. The $908 billion bipartisan framework does not include direct payments to individuals.
No additional details have yet to emerge on the $45 billion in proposed funding included in the bipartisan framework for transportation, including the $4 billion targeted for airports and the $17 billion proposed for airlines. Leaders of the bipartisan, bicameral group have indicated they hope to release a draft bill as early as this afternoon. We will send out an Alert with details as soon as we have them.
While the bipartisan measure is an important marker, keep in mind that neither Senate and House leadership nor the White House have signed off on that plan, and negotiations are likely to continue.
Help Still Needed to Highlight Airport, Aviation System Needs
The situation remains very fluid, and no final decisions as to what to include and what to leave out of a potential final package have been made at this point. Again, there is tremendous pressure to limit the size and scope of any potential deal, and we will need to remain active and vocal to have a shot at gaining funding for our priorities in any final package that may emerge.
To that end, we urge you to weigh in with your Senators and House members today to remind them of the urgent need to get federal help to airports and our partners in the aviation industry as soon as possible. Being left out of any package that passes in December to wait for a future package in 2021 will be costly in terms of immediate relief and risky since no one can predict what the new year will bring politically or with the virus and its impacts.
Please contact your Representative and Senators as soon as possible and ask them to ensure that any coronavirus package that emerges in the lame duck session include relief for airports and the aviation ecosystem. Draft talking points are available from our previous Action Alert.
Thank you for your continued engagement!
