Airport Alert: White House Proposes Spending Cuts in FY 2021 Budget Request, Including Airport Priorities

 

The Trump Administration today unveiled its FY 2021 budget request, which proposes to cut spending by $4.4 trillion over the next decade and seeks steep reductions to domestic and social safety net programs that will draw significant opposition on Capitol Hill.

 

The budget request again proposes to eliminate funding for the TSA law enforcement officer (LEO) reimbursement program and agency staffing of exit lanes, proposals Congress has consistently rejected in the past. The administration is also calling to end additional AIP supplemental funding that Congress has provided in recent years. Although lawmakers are likely to cast a skeptical eye on most of the budget request, we must remain vigilant in communicating airport concerns and priorities to Capitol Hill. AAAE Federal Affairs members can get a full debrief on the budget and specific instructions for helping to address proposed cuts during our webinar on Thursday, February 13, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Eastern. Please email Maribeth Sarnecki for additional details.

 

Overall, the budget outline seeks a 5 percent cut ($1.9 trillion) to non-defense discretionary spending and smaller reductions of 2 percent in future years. Notably, the White House has proposed less total non-defense spending in FY 2021 than is allowed by the two-year budget deal lawmakers and the administration agreed to last year. The administration said the cuts are necessary to control spending levels and end federal budget deficits in 15 years.

 

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees will soon hold myriad hearings on the FY 2021 budget requests for various federal agencies and programs, and lawmakers will work on drafting the annual funding bills in the months ahead. Stay tuned for additional updates and calls to action as the FY 2021 appropriations process moves forward.

 

Details about the DOT/FAA and DHS/TSA/CBP portions of the administration's budget blueprint follow below.

 

 

 

Traditional AIP Funding: The administration is proposing $3.35 billion for the traditional Airport Improvement Program in FY 2021 - the same as the current funding level. Of that amount, $119.4 million would go toward personnel costs - a $3 million increase in FY 2021.

 

A DOT summary indicates that the extra personnel funding would "support eight new positions for fulfillment of audit requirements related to tax revenues, airport noise solution activities, integration of UAS into airports through policy development and outreach, and improvements to airport compliance with safety regulations."

 

Under the administration's plan, another $15 million in AIP funding would go to the Airport Cooperative Research Program and $40.7 million for Airport Technology Research. Of funding for the latter, the administration is proposing $1.4 million to "conduct research and develop standards for urban air mobility, as well as two new positions to provide expertise in new and innovative pavement materials testing and to support UAS research specific to airports."

 

Supplemental AIP Funding: The White House is specifically targeting AIP supplemental discretionary grants for elimination. The final FY 2020 spending package included an additional $400 million for airport infrastructure projects. Congress has approved almost $2 billion in supplemental discretionary funds for airports over the past three fiscal years.

 

The administration suggests that runways and taxiways are in good shape even though the FAA previously indicated that airports have more than $7 billion in AIP-eligible projects every year. 

The following is part of the administration's justification for eliminating AIP supplemental discretionary grants:

 

"The state of repair of airfield infrastructure is good - over 98 percent of the runways at commercial service airports are in excellent, good, or fair condition. The Congress has provided additional unrequested discretionary funding of nearly $2 billion for AIP since 2018. Given the high state-of-repair for runways and taxiways, the Budget would not continue the discretionary funding for AIP grants. The 2021 Budget supports the authorized level of $3.35 billion."

The fact that the White House is shining a light on AIP supplemental grants underscores the need for airports to contact their House and Senate lawmakers about why it is so critical that Congress appropriate another round of supplemental discretionary grants for airports in FY 2021.

 

Operations: The White House budget plan includes slightly more than $11 billion for FAA operations - almost $372 million above the current level. Under the administration's plan, funding for the entire FAA operations account would come from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. No funding would come from the general fund.

Facilities and Equipment: The administration is proposing to reduce funding for Facilities and Equipment slightly to $3 billion in FY 2021 - $45 million less than the amount Congress approved for FY 2020.

Research, Engineering, and Development: The president is proposing to reduce funding for the FAA's Research, Engineering, and Development account by almost $23 million in FY 2021. Under the president's plan, research funding would decline from approximately $192.7 million in FY 2020 to $170 million in FY 2021.

 

Budget documents suggest that the administration is seeking $1 trillion for infrastructure investment over the next decade. However, the White House is clearly focused on highways, bridges and other surface transportation projects rather than airport infrastructure:

 

"The Budget proposes a historic 10-year, $810 billion reauthorization of surface transportation programs, including highway, transit, rail, highway safety, and hazardous materials safety programs, including important reforms to provide critical investments in the Nation's transportation infrastructure," White House budget documents say. "The Budget includes an additional $190 billion for additional infrastructure investments, across a range of sectors, for a total of $1 trillion in infrastructure investment."

 

The administration's approach contrasts with a broader plan put forward by House Democrats. Last month they unveiled a $760 billion infrastructure framework that calls for raising the federal cap on local Passenger Facility Charges to an unspecified amount and indexing it for inflation. The Democrats' plan proposes investing $30 billion in airport and airway infrastructure with an emphasis on funding for sustainability and noise projects.

 

Contract Towers: The administration's budget does not include a specific dollar amount for the popular Contract Tower Program. The final FY 2020 spending measure included $170 million in dedicated funding for the Contract Tower and Contract Tower Cost-Share programs - a $2 million plus-up from the previous year. Currently, 256 airports in 46 states participate in the program.

 

Essential Air Service: The administration's budget request includes $141.7 million in appropriated funds for the EAS program - $20.3 million less than the current level. Coupled with an estimated $153 million from overflight fees, the overall funding level for EAS would be approximately $294.7 million in FY 2021. If enacted into law the White House plan would reduce overall EAS funding by almost $17.8 million.

 

As part of its justification for reducing funding for the program, budget documents argue that EAS is an "outdated program, designed 40 years ago to be a temporary program to mitigate potential impacts from airline deregulation." It goes on to say that "many EAS flights are not full and have high per-passenger subsidy costs."

 

The White House is continuing to propose reforms to: "limit EAS eligibility to communities receiving subsidized service in 2020; increase the subsidy cap from $200 to $250 per passenger for communities located within 210 miles of a large or medium hub airport; eliminate the subsidy waiver for this requirement;" and require "a 10 percent cost share for communities that do not meet certain eligibility requirements."

 

Small Community Air Service Development: The administration is not requesting any funds for the Small Community Air Service Development Program. The FY 2020 spending bill included $10 million for the program with funding coming from the AIP account.

 

UAS Integration: The administration is proposing $65.3 million from the Operations account to "safely integrate UAS into our Nation's busy airspace. The budget also addresses the need for enhanced security to defend against UAS threats and the growth in Counter-UAS systems."

UAS Traffic Management System/Remote ID: The administration is requesting $48.6 million for "the development and deployment of the automated UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system." As part of that request, budget documents indicate that the FAA will "begin infrastructure and implementation work on Remote Identification of UAS to ensure the NAS operations continue to remain safe."

 

UAS Research: The administration is also proposing $24 million from FAA's Research account for UAS. According to budget documents that research will focus on "beyond visual line of sight operations; safety data collection; unmanned air carrier operations; emerging issues related to UAS operations, concepts, and technology; and supporting the development of new rules and regulator standards."

 

 

Community Noise Engagement: According to a DOT summary, the administration's request includes $4.3 million to "support locally held community roundtables composed of stakeholders from the community, airport management, government officials, and industry to develop solutions to concerns involving noise. Of the total increase, $1.3 million will be used by staff offices for direct public engagement."

 

Commercial Space: The administration is proposing $44 million for Commercial Space to "speed the processing of licenses and approvals, streamline regulatory requirements, and keep pace with industry demands for products and services while continuing to advance the safe integration of space operations into the airspace system."

 

NextGen: The FY 2021 budget request includes $996 million for NextGen. The administration indicated that the request is "consistent with previous funding levels and reflects the priorities identified in the NextGen Advisory Committee for improving traffic flow."

 

The administration is proposing a discretionary budget of $49.7 billion for the Department of Homeland Security in FY 2021, including funding for the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. After factoring in the Secret Service, which this budget proposes to transfer to the Department of Treasury in 2021, the request is $1.6 billion or 3.2 percent above the final FY 2020 spending level. This funding increase reflects the administration's priorities to strengthen security at the border and enforce existing immigration laws.

The administration is proposing a total discretionary appropriation of $8 billion to support TSA, including a $1 increase in the aviation passenger user fee in FY 2021. After factoring out fees, TSA's net appropriations request is $4.094 billion, or $900 million below the FY 2020 enacted spending level, with several proposals that would shift agency costs to airports.

 

Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) Reimbursement Grants: The budget does not request any funding for LEO reimbursement grants (-$46 million). Supporting documents note that "This incentive is no longer necessary as state and local jurisdictions have had plenty of time to adjust and provide resources." The document further notes that "As State and local jurisdictions already pay the majority of law enforcement costs, discontinuing this program would not place an undue financial burden on these entities."

 

TSA Staffing of Exit Lanes: The budget does not request any funding for TSA to staff exit lanes (-$84 million) and instead "proposes to shift the responsibility of staffing exit points in secure areas of airports to the responsibility of airport operators."

 

Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR): The budget does not request funding for the 31 VIPR teams in FY 2021 (-$59 million). The budget notes that because "State and local law enforcement agencies already monitor and maintain jurisdiction in these areas, the VIPR teams' efforts are duplicative and unnecessary. In addition, VIPR team performance measures fail to articulate program effectiveness, and lack demonstrable results."

 

Aviation Passenger Security Fee: As noted, the budget proposes a passenger security fee increase of $1, from $5.60 to $6.60 per a one-way trip in FY 2021, and plans an additional increase in FY 2022 that would raise the fee to $8.25 per one-way trip. This proposed fee increase has consistently been rejected by Congress in the past.

 

Transportation Security Officers (TSOs): Overall, the budget assumes 1,068 fewer TSOs in FY 2021 as compared to FY 2020. While the request includes 726 new TSO positions at high volume airports to support a 4 percent increase in anticipated traffic, it also calls for reducing 1,794 TSO positions at exit lanes. The budget also notes that the agency will delay hiring for the new positions until the last quarters of the fiscal year. Further, to save money, the agency is discontinuing providing full-time benefits to new part-time TSOs.

 

TSO Pay and Morale Incentives: The budget requests $35 million for two new merit-based initiatives designed to address TSO pay and morale issues. The first of these initiatives, called the TSO Career Progression, will provide a 3 percent pay increase ($11.3 million) to screeners who are able to demonstrate higher skill levels in the most difficult alarm resolution scenarios at the checkpoint. The second initiative will fund annual pay increases ($23.6 million) for TSOs who demonstrate service longevity.

 

Retention Incentives for TSOs: The budget reduces retention incentives offered to TSOs by $46.4 million, assuming the merit-based initiatives will reduce the agency's reliance on retention incentives. Currently, TSA provides retention incentives at locations that experience challenges with recruiting new employees and the incentives are used to retain TSOs in high cost of living and other locations where TSA could not compete with salaries offered on the open market.

 

Computed Tomography (CT): The budget proposes $29 million for 30 new computed tomography (CT) units to be deployed at the nation's highest risk airports. This is a dramatic reduction in funding for new CT units compared to the 320 machines funded in FY 2020.

 

Credential Authentication Technology (CAT): The budget requests $2.3 million to purchase and deploy 109 additional Credential Authentication Technology machines and "finish the nation-wide deployment of this documentation and ID verification technology that is critical to screening passengers entering the checkpoint."

 

Biometrics: The budget requests $2 million to fund TSA's biometrics program at PreCheck lanes in Atlanta. These facial matching biometric machines will be fielded with CAT machines.

 

Threats from Unmanned Aircraft Systems: To address emerging threats, the budget requests $3 million and 28 additional positions to support high-priority TSA and DHS joint efforts to counter threats from Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), such as drones, that pose a threat to transportation security and potential disruption to air traffic operations. With this funding, TSA plans to conduct no fewer than four enhanced joint vulnerability assessments at the largest domestic hub airports (Core 30 airports) and other airports determined as high-risk; provide 24/7 UAS/C-UAS watch and incident management; vet UAS operators certificates to identify potential threats; and conduct other support activities.

 

Janitorial Services and Utilities: While the FY 2020 spending bill eliminated funding for janitorial services at TSA checkpoints, the budget will continue to pay for utilities at 165 airports' passenger and baggage checkpoint locations in FY 2021.

 

Screening Partnership Program (SPP): The budget proposes $205 million for SPP airports, which is $22 million less than the amount provided in the final FY 2020 spending bill. TSA states that the proposal reflects reduced contract costs and is not expected to impact screening performance or security effectiveness.

In total, the administration is proposing $15.6 billion in net discretionary funding for CBP to strengthen our nation's border security, combat illicit drugs, and impede illegal border crossings, an increase of $685 million above the FY 2020 enacted level. The budget includes $2 billion to construct additional wall along the Southwest border of the United States.

 

CBP Officers: The budget does not request any funding for additional CBP officers, agriculture specialist or support staff to screen people and goods entering the United States. However, the budget fully funds the new CBP officers hired in calendar year 2019.

 

Overtime: The proposed per person overtime cap is $45,000 in FY 2021, consistent with prior years' limitations.

 

Biometric Exit: The administration assumes remittance of $60 million in new fees for biometric exit. This fee estimate is consistent with the 2020 level.

 

User Fee Increases: The administration proposes to increase two CBP user fees - the Immigration Inspection User Fee (IUF) and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) fee. Specifically, the IUF fee, which is collected at the time a ticket is issued, would be increased by $2. The administration proposes to partially eliminate a fee exemption for sea passengers arriving from the United States, Canada, Mexico or adjacent islands. The COBRA fee, which is charged to all passengers traveling by air and sea, would be increased by $2. The administration proposes to increase all other COBRA rates and caps by proportionate amounts. Legislation is included that would extend collection authority for COBRA and merchandise processing fees beyond the current sunset date. Congress has rejected similar increases in the past.