By Russ Niles
As he promised in February, Pennsylvania Rep. Bill Shuster appears intent on trying again to convince his fellow lawmakers to privatize air traffic control in the U.S. With just six weeks left in the short-term FAA funding authorization that was approved March 15, Shuster is reportedly gathering support, Washington style, for the privatization plan, which proved wildly unpopular when he introduced it in February. “[Shuster] claims that he is getting votes every day,” Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., the ranking member of the committee, told Morning Consult last week. “He’s been going around offering people all sorts of things if they’ll vote for his privatization.”
The privatization plan was soundly rejected by most members on both sides of the House and by the Senate when the House Transportation Committee, which is headed by Shuster, passed it earlier this year. The committee proposal also drew a groundswell of opposition from most aviation groups, even though it also contains measures like a liberal take on third class medical reform and simplified aircraft certification that are supported by those groups. The bill was endorsed by airlines and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Shuster finally relented and the bill was shelved in late February in favor of the short-term authorization.
At the time, Shuster gave notice that he would keep trying to pass the privatization measure. “This is an ongoing process, and we will continue working to educate members and address questions they have about the bill," he said in the statement. House speaker Paul Ryan has cleared the way for a second attempt by nominating Shuster to lead the effort to pass a long-term reauthorization bill. “The last thing I want to do as speaker is undercut our committee chairs having been a committee chair,” Ryan told the Morning Consult. “So I believe this deadline will be met and we want to give [Shuster] what he needs to do what he thinks is right.” What Shuster thinks is right is definitely not what the Senate thinks is right.
The upper chamber passed its own version of the reauthorization bill without the privatization provisions (and with a more restricted version of medical reform) shortly after the short-term authorization was passed and now Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and other Senate leaders are calling on Shuster to simply take up that bill or something like it. “We believe it provides a bipartisan blueprint that could garner similar support in the House of Representatives,” the Senate leaders said in a letter to Shuster and DeFazio. “With only six weeks remaining on the legislative calendar before funding for the FAA is set to expire, we urge you to move this bill or a similar companion measure forward in the House of Representatives as quickly as possible.”
