GovernmentExecutive.com

Two managers of small airports on Wednesday urged lawmakers to put politics aside and pass the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, even if it means opening some air traffic control towers, including ones at their airports, to privatization.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., have vowed to lead efforts to send a version of the legislation agreed upon by House and Senate conferees in late July back to each chamber for further negotiation.

Lautenberg told reporters during a conference call Wednesday that he would "fight like the devil" against the conference report, which emerged without provisions preventing the FAA from outsourcing flight service specialists, air traffic controllers and air traffic technicians.

Language approved by the conference committee would bar the FAA from subjecting air traffic controllers to competition until 2008, but would exempt 69 low- and medium-activity towers, with a total of approximately 1,000 employees, from the ban. Conferees agreed to the report after hasty negotiations that left Democrats little room to add amendments, Oberstar said. He plans to vote against the conference report when the House takes up the legislation after the August recess.

Both Lautenberg and Oberstar said they hope the House and Senate will be able to reach a new agreement that includes protections against privatization, and pass the revised legislation before this session of Congress ends. If that does not happen, lawmakers could simply extend the current FAA authorization bill for six months or a year, they said. While this is not an ideal scenario, it would be preferable to passing a version of the reauthorization bill that allows air traffic control privatization, they added.

But Robert Olislagers, manager of Denver's Centennial Airport, and Dennis Rouleau, manager of Palwaukee Airport in Wheeling, Ill., a Chicago suburb, said the lawmakers should not hold up the legislation over this politically contentious issue. The conference report (H. Rpt. 108-240) authorizes funding for airport planning and development programs.

Oberstar argued that the airports would not actually lose money if Congress stalled the reauthorization bill for six months or a year. The conference report grants airports $3.4 billion for improvement projects, the same amount House appropriators are already set to allot when they return from recess. Furthermore, the Airport Trust Fund contains a $4.5 billion surplus that could be drawn down to supplement existing funds, if necessary, Oberstar said.

Lautenberg and Oberstar contended that the prospect of air traffic control privatization is a large enough threat to warrant stalling the bill.

"The very future of safe air travel is at stake here, make no mistake about it," Oberstar said.

The language allowing privatization is part of a "grand scheme . . . to fulfill a mission set out by a Republican spokesman - Grover Norquist," Lautenberg said. The Bush administration and some Republican lawmakers are "poking and probing," looking for government jobs to privatize in order to reach outsourcing goals, he added. In a July 2 letter, Norquist, a prominent conservative activist and president of Americans for Tax Reform, urged House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas to defend the administration's competitive sourcing initiative.

But at a July 24 Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Angela Styles, head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, explained that giving the FAA the option to run competitions for air traffic controller jobs is not akin to privatizing the entire air traffic control system. The administration would simply like to designate certain air traffic positions as "commercial in nature," she said, giving the FAA an opportunity to put the jobs up for bids if desired.

Olislagers commended the federal air traffic controllers who work at his airport, but said he would not mind having the flexibility to run competitions for air traffic control. The FAA has already privatized jobs at low-activity towers under its Contract Tower Program, he noted, and the privatized towers have a good safety record.

"Perhaps there's room for the smaller, less busy towers to be privatized if that frees up additional dollars," he said.

Rouleau said he would like to keep his federal air traffic controllers, since they do a good job and are able to communicate effectively with their counterparts at nearby O'Hare International Airport. "I've always had an excellent rapport with controllers," he added. "If it's not broke, then why fix it?"

But Rouleau still urged lawmakers to reach an agreement and pass the FAA bill, with or without the protections against privatization.

COMMENTS

• Mr. Olislagers and Mr. Rouleau should do their homework. If they think for one minute that privatizing the ATC system is going to help their airports they are grossly mistaken. Once the FAA contracts out flight service and more control towers it is only a matter of time before the general aviation community begans paying a bigger share of the bill. Look to Canada, Europe, and Australia for the future of general aviation if outsourcing continues. General aviation will suffer as a result of privatizing. I believe this will adversely affect your airports and thousands more. Mr. Olislagers, Mr. Rouleau I urge you to do your homework! Don't rely on the FAA upper management and some government funded independent think tank to give you the complete and correct information. Talk to those who have dealt with government contractors, listen to the people, the government employees who take great pride and are most qualified in providing the best services available to general aviation. They know the truth, and the truth will open your eyes! GovExec.com reader Posted August 13, 2003 10:02 PM