House Committee Advances FY24 DOT/FAA Spending Bill
July 18, 2023
After a long day of partisan sniping, the House Appropriations Committee approved on a party-line vote its version of the annual funding bill for the programs and operations of the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1.
Tensions flared throughout the day among committee members on overall funding levels, the Republican treatment of certain earmarks, and other issues. As we have noted repeatedly, House Republicans are working aggressively to reduce federal spending and moving to fund annual appropriations bills at FY22 levels overall, which would necessitate government-wide cuts of nearly $120 billion from current levels. In contrast, the Democrat-controlled Senate is moving to fund the federal government at FY23 levels in accordance with the recent debt ceiling deal negotiated by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee will consider its version of the FY24 DOT/FAA spending bill.
The House measure proposes $3.35 billion in AIP funding with another $303 million provided for the airport earmarks highlighted in the committee report accompanying the bill. The measure also funds the Contract Tower Program at $194 million. Overall, the measure includes $19.553 billion in total budgetary resources for the FAA, which is $529 million above the FY23 enacted level. Of that amount, $12.73 billion is proposed for FAA operations, which committee leaders say would meet existing needs and allow the agency to hire 1,800 air traffic controllers to replace the retiring workforce. The bill proposes $2.973 billion for FAA facilities and equipment, which is $27.9 million above the FY23 enacted level. The FAA research, engineering, and development account is funded at $196.05 million. Additional details are available in our previous Airport Alert.
Additionally, the committee report accompanying the bill includes a list of airport 'earmarks' (pages 138-144) and provides congressional direction to DOT and FAA on a host of issues related to the Contract Tower Program, airport fees on transportation network companies, PFAS mitigation, aviation workforce development, community engagement and noise, small community air service, FAA regulatory processes, and other items.
The path forward in the House for the bill approved today is uncertain. Given united opposition from Democrats and the continued reluctance of a group of conservative Republicans to vote for any annual spending bills, it is unlikely that the measure has sufficient votes to pass the full House. Other annual funding bills are similarly situated. Given the narrow majorities in both chambers and the disagreement among the two parties on overall spending levels and on a myriad of individual spending decisions, many in Washington are already warning of a potential government shutdown in the fall.
