Airport Alert: Commerce Committee Approves Two Airport Bills
July 22, 2020
After some unexpected drama earlier this week, the Senate Commerce Committee today approved two AAAE-backed bills - one that would allow airports to use incentive payments for AIP-funded projects and another to ensure that airports are not unfairly penalized because of the dramatic drop in passengers and traffic due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Committee approved both by voice vote.S. 4162, Airport Infrastructure Readiness (AIR) Act of 2020
Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) recently introduced this bill that includes two provisions that would help airports impacted by the pandemic. Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Ted Cruz (R-TX) - the Ranking Member and Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee, respectively - Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) cosponsored the legislation.
AIP Entitlements: The AIR Act would ensure airports receive their fair share of AIP entitlements for critical safety and security projects despite the dramatic drop in passenger numbers this year. Specifically, it would allow AIP apportionments in Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023 to be based on higher passenger numbers in Calendar Years 2018 or 2019 - whichever is higher - rather than Calendar Years 2020 or 2021.
AAAE President and CEO Todd Hauptli and Senator Fischer discussed the need for a legislative fix to address the AIP entitlement issue when he testified before the Senate Commerce Committee in May during a hearing on how the coronavirus is impacting the aviation industry.
"If we use this year as a baseline, everything blows up," Hauptli told Fischer. "We can't do that. So we're going to need flexibility."
Contract Towers: The bill would also protect airports that participate in the Contract Tower Program, which enhances aviation safety at 256 airports in 46 states. Under current law, airports that participate in the program are subject to benefit-cost analysis (BCA) if their operations decrease by 25 percent or more in a single year.
Because of the precipitous decline in operations this year, many airports that participate in the Contract Tower Program could be subject to a BCA because of the pandemic. The AIR Act would temporarily suspend the BCA requirement and ensure that airports are not required to come up with scarce local funds to participate in this critical safety program.
Scott Amendment: Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) drafted an amendment that would have prohibited any airport that received more than $5 million in CARES Act grants from receiving AIP funds in FY22 and FY23. AAAE urged Committee members to reject the onerous proposal, and Florida airports weighed in with Scott. Facing strong opposition on both sides of the aisle, the Senator withdrew his amendment and asked to recoded as voting no on the bill.
During today's debate, Scott said he supported the CARES Act but didn't agree with bailing out airlines and other large corporations. He also used inflated numbers to criticize funding in the bill that went to airports.
"On top of billions to airlines, we gave airports around $20 billion dollars in taxpayer money in the CARES Act," Scott said. "As we all know there is no such thing as free money. American families will need to pay this money back in the future."
The CARES Act included $10 billion for airports - half of Scott's $20 billion estimate.
S. 3958, Expedited Delivery of Airport Infrastructure Act of 2020
The bill would permit airports to use up to $1 million to incentivize a contractor to complete an AIP-funded project early, a technique that is common for surface transportation projects. Senators Todd Young (R-IN), Sinema and Cruz sponsored the legislation.
Allowing airports to use early incentive payments to expedite key projects was one of the joint recommendations that AAAE and ACI-NA proposed during consideration of last FAA reauthorization bill. We pointed out that this option could be helpful to airports and especially those in northern tier states with short construction cycles. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a similar bill (H.R. 5912) in February.
