House bill would delay FAA supervisory cuts

Federal Aviation Administration supervisors are holding their breath to see what happens to a provision in the House version of the Transportation Department appropriations bill that would delay reductions in FAA's management ranks.

The House bill, H.R. 2084, calls on the FAA to delay an effort to eliminate 600 supervisory positions at air traffic control towers. The plan is part of a labor-management agreement between the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association signed last year that called for better pay for controllers and a wider span of control for front-line supervisors.

"Now is not the time to move too quickly in removing supervisors," the House report accompanying H.R. 2084 says.

In October 1998, the FAA began reducing air traffic supervisory positions through attrition. Now it wants to supplant more supervisors through the use of "controllers-in-charge" (CICs). Controllers have long taken on CIC duties-essentially team leader roles-when supervisors take breaks or when traffic is slow. The agency wants to make use of CICs more frequently. Last October, the FAA began paying controllers a 10 percent pay differential to take on CIC duties. By 2003, the agency hopes to expand the supervisor-to-controller ratio from 1:7 to 1:10 by cutting supervisors and relying more heavily on CICs.

But the Federal Managers Association, which has 1,700 dues-paying members in its FAA conference, is lobbying hard to prevent the change. In addition to getting the House to help block the FAA's efforts, FMA has contacted members of the Senate to get a similar provision included in its version of the Transportation appropriations bill.

FMA points to inspector general warnings about the safety hazards connected with cutting supervisors. From 1992 to 1995, the FAA scaled back its supervisory ranks as part of the National Performance Review's push to make the supervisory ratio 1-to-15 governmentwide. During the same period, operational errors by air traffic controllers increased between 4 percent and 14 percent. A private contractor hired by the FAA in 1995 linked the increase in errors to the management cuts.

The IG warned the FAA to better train CICs if the agency wants to rely on them, instead of supervisors, to oversee air traffic control.

An FAA spokesman said the agency is working with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to improve training for CICs. The FAA also responded to criticism from FMA that controllers-in-charge were being haphazardly selected, saying that facility managers select controllers to take on CIC duties.

FMA is further arguing that increasing CICs would cost more than simply keeping the same number of supervisors in the control towers.

The Senate and House will also have to deal with a clause that worked its way into the Transportation appropriations bill that cut out funding for any FAA salaries. Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., got the House to eliminate $5.9 billion in funding for FAA salaries, citing a procedural rule. The money will be restored in conference.