Action Alert: Please Urge Your Lawmakers to Support Airport Priorities in FY23 Appropriations Bills
As Congress gears up for the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations process, we need your help as we urge lawmakers to increase funding for the Airport Improvement Program, the FAA Contract Tower Program, and continued TSA staffing of exit lanes, among other airport priorities, in the annual Department of Transportation and Homeland Security spending bills.
Last month, the Biden Administration released its FY23 budget request, which is a mixed bag for airports. While it proposed the usual $3.35 billion for the Airport Improvement Program, it failed to include additional funding for supplemental discretionary grants, which lawmakers used to fund more than $550 million in congressional earmarks and other airport infrastructure projects in FY22. Similarly, on the DHS front, the White House proposed to fund more than 2,500 additional Transportation Security Officers to meet rising demand; however, it also called for transitioning TSA's responsibility for staffing TSA exit lanes to airports.
Request: We need your help to convince lawmakers to fund our priorities in the upcoming appropriations process. Please reach out to your representative and your two senators and ask them to support airport priorities in the FY23 DOT and DHS appropriations bills. A draft letter that you can send to your House and Senate lawmakers may be viewed here. (Please fill in your specific airport information.) Contact information for your House member and Senators is available via these links.
Key airport priorities for the FY23 DOT and DHS appropriations bills are listed below:
FY 2023 DOT/FAA Funding Bill
• Increase Funding for the Airport Improvement Program: We are urging Congress to provide full funding for the traditional AIP account and for supplemental discretionary grants in FY23. With passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in November, Congress separately approved an additional $3 billion for Airport Infrastructure Grants and $1 billion in airport terminal grants annually through FY26.
While the funding in the IIJA will serve as a down payment to help bridge the enormous funding gap for airport infrastructure nationwide, the need for additional federal investment remains. Continued funding for both traditional and supplemental AIP “ in conjunction with funding in the IIJA and a long-overdue increase in the federal cap on local passenger facility charges “ would help airports close the significant infrastructure funding gap they currently face.
• Enhance Aviation Safety by Increasing Funding for the Contract Tower Program: We are urging lawmakers to include $184 million in dedicated funding for the FAA Contract Tower Program in FY23. The FAA Contract Tower Program provides 260 smaller airports in 46 states with cost-effective air traffic control services that enhance aviation safety and help connect smaller airports and rural communities with our national air transportation system.
• Help Small Communities Retain Commercial Air Service: During the pandemic, airlines reduced or eliminated commercial air service to communities around the country. Congress can help by increasing funding for programs that help small communities maintain commercial air service. Specifically, we are urging lawmakers to support the President's budget to increase funding for the Essential Air Service Program and provide $10 million for the Small Community Air Service Development Program. Both programs help to ensure that people who live in rural and less populated areas have access to our national aviation system.
FY 2023 DHS/TSA/CBP Funding Bill
• Require TSA to Continue Staffing Exit Lanes: Despite clear direction from Congress and permanent provisions in federal law requiring TSA to staff exit lanes, the President's FY23 budget request proposes to shift these responsibilities to airport operators. Aside from budget convenience for the agency, this proposal lacks merit and should be rejected “ just as it was by Congress on a bipartisan basis in 2013. We urge Congress to continue to require TSA to staff exit lanes and provide the necessary resources to do so, as it has done every year since 2013.
• Properly Staff TSA Security Checkpoints and CBP Air Ports-of-Entry: We urge Congress to provide TSA and CBP with the resources they need for more officers to handle the explosive growth in passenger volumes without lengthy wait times, and for new technologies to screen travelers and their baggage effectively and efficiently.
• Fully Fund TSA LEO Reimbursement Program: We urge Congress to fully fund TSA's law LEO reimbursement program in FY23. These grants partially reimburse airports for LEOs who respond to possible threats during the checkpoint screening process because TSA screeners do not have authority to detain or make arrests. Previous efforts to eliminate these annual reimbursements while still requiring airports to provide TSA with law enforcement resources at checkpoints were rejected in recognition of the fact that such an approach could weaken security by forcing airports to divert resources from other security purposes, like patrolling public areas.
