USCTA Alert

April 25, 2024

If you haven’t already done so, please contact your representative today and ask your lawmaker to cosign a bipartisan letter requesting funding for the FAA Contract Tower Program in the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriation process.  
 
House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) today announced that programmatic requests from members are due next week. To meet that tight deadline, Reps. Julia Brownley (D-CA) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) are planning to close out their contract tower request letter tomorrow morning.
 
Urgent Request: Please contact your representative today and ask your lawmaker to cosign the Brownley-McMorris Rodgers letter requesting full funding for the FCT program in the FY25 DOT spending bill. Draft talking points are below:

• On behalf of __________ Airport, I would like to thank you for supporting the FAA Contract Tower Program and ask that continue to support the program in the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations process.
  
  
• As you know, this successful and cost-effective program enhances aviation safety at our airport and at 263 other small airports around the country.
  
  
• To illustrate the cost-effectiveness of the program, contract towers handle approximately 28 percent of all U.S. tower operations but only account for 10 percent of the FAA’s overall budget allotted to air traffic control tower operations.  
  
  
• Representatives Julia Brownley (D-CA) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) have drafted a bipartisan letter to House Appropriations Committee leaders requesting full funding for the Contract Tower Program in the FY25 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.
  
  
• I realize you receive several funding requests this time of year. But I urge you to highlight your support for our airport and for the cost-effective FAA Contract Tower Program by cosigning this important appropriations request letter.  
  
  
• Full funding for the FAA Contract Tower Program will ensure that the program can continue to enhance aviation safety at our airport and airports around the country while achieving significant cost savings for the FAA. 
  
  
• At a time when Congress, the administration, and aviation stakeholders are focusing on ways to reduce the risk of near misses and runway incursions, it is critical that we fully fund the FAA Contract Tower Program.
  
  
• Thank you again for supporting our airport and for considering our request.