Missed aircraft repair deadline concerns Democrats

A missed deadline by the Bush administration to issue regulations for repairing U.S. aircraft overseas has Democratic lawmakers worried about the national security implications.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) missed an Aug. 8 deadline mandated by Congress last year to issue regulations that ensure the security of foreign repair stations.

"Given the security threats faced by this nation both at home and abroad, further delay in the issuance of this rule cannot be tolerated," said James Oberstar of Minnesota and Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the ranking Democrats respectively on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its Aviation Subcommittee.

The lawmakers made the statements in a letter to top FAA and TSA officials Monday, adding that the deadline was imposed because that sector of the aviation system remains vulnerable.

A TSA spokeswoman said Monday that the agency would send a status report to Congress this week explaining why officials missed the deadline and a schedule for issuing the regulations. She declined to comment on the report's details.

One industry executive argued that issuing regulations affecting foreign companies is complicated by economic and sovereignty issues. "It's not a simple thing to do," said Bob Robeson, vice president of the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents manufacturing companies that build aircraft and businesses that produce raw parts for the industry.

U.S. airline carriers increasingly have shipped their aircraft and parts to foreign countries, where labor costs are cheaper. The Transportation Department inspector general's office found in 2002 that the major air carriers spent $2.5 billion -- up from $1.5 billion in 1996 -- on overseas maintenance repairs.

The IG also said while the FAA has improved oversight of domestic repair stations, it has not placed similar supervision over foreign companies. There are some 650 foreign repair stations in Europe and Asia supervised by international aviation authorities and FAA inspectors.

But it is a reciprocal relationship, according to Robeson, who said there are about twice as many U.S. stations that operate under European approval than foreign shops fixing U.S. aircraft. "There is a favorable balance in trade," said Robeson, who cautioned against TSA issuing regulations such as requiring European aviation security officials to oversee U.S. companies that could trigger trade retaliation by foreign countries.

The issues add fuel to heated debates over the so-called outsourcing of U.S. jobs and national security -- topics that have become fodder for the presidential campaigns.

On Monday, the AFL-CIO, which has backed Democratic candidate John Kerry for president, took a more partisan tone in its criticism. "The Bush administration has an all-talk, no-action approach to transportation security, a policy of chronic inaction that is failing to protect the traveling public, workers and homeland security," said Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department.

The AFL-CIO also pointed to a second missed deadline in March requiring aviation officials to outline a plan for Congress on requiring foreign repair stations to meet the same safety standards required by U.S. facilities and employees.