To the Members of the United States Congress:
Congress must pass legislation to avert any lapse in the Federal Aviation Administration’s operating authorities, and we urge the committees of jurisdiction and the full House and Senate to complete work expeditiously on multi-year FAA reauthorization.
The FAA is vital to the U.S. traveling public and business community. The civil aviation sector is responsible for approximately 5% of U.S. GDP and over 10 million jobs.[1] Any interruption of the FAA’s programs – even a few hours or days – would undermine public confidence and interrupt progress on critical initiatives to advance safety, efficiency, innovation, and airport infrastructure. Given the current shortage of air traffic controllers and related system impacts, this would be a particularly bad time to halt hiring and training of our nation’s air traffic controllers.
Multi-year reauthorization remains critical as the industry is working to restore air service to its pre-pandemic levels. Continual short-term reauthorizations halt certification of pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers, and flight attendants. The 23 short term extensions of FAA programs between 2007 and 2012 created an uncertain operating environment for the traveling public, airlines, airports, and the business community. A low point during this unfortunate era was the 2011 FAA shutdown of non-essential operations that led to the temporary loss of 70,000 airport construction jobs and the issuance of stop-work orders on more than $7 billion in FAA contracts.[2]
We remain confident the House and Senate will agree on a new bipartisan reauthorization legislation this Congress. We also appreciate the strong, bipartisan efforts of the members of the committees of jurisdiction to wrap up work on this legislation. Congress must pass an extension of FAA operating authority to allow time to allow these efforts to be completed. We are grateful for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Aerospace Industries Association
Airlines for America
Airport Consultants Council
Airports Council International – North America
American Council of Engineering Companies
American Society of Civil Engineers
Associated General Contractors of America
Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International
Association of Flight Attendants - CWA
Cargo Airline Association
Consumer Technology Association
Helicopter Association International
International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers
National Air Carrier Association
Regional Airline Association
Small UAV Coalition
TechNet
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
U.S. Travel Association
[1] FAA, The Economic Impact of U.S. Civil Aviation: 2020 (released August 2022), https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/2022-08/2022-APL-038%202022_economic%20impact_report.pdf
