“If we truly want to fix the real problems facing the FAA today, the solution is simple,” claims Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio. Really? “Congress can and should pass targeted reforms.”
Cool. That is simple.
Umm. So… why haven’t you passed “targeted reforms” Rep. DeFazio?
After all, you’ve served as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee since you entered Congress in 1987. That’s 30 years. Should’ve been more than enough time.
To counter President Trump’s plan to strip FAA of ATC responsibility, DeFazio and Rep. Rick Larsen from Washington introduced the Aviation Funding Stability Act of 2017. The act offers “targeted measures that guarantee that investments in our aviation system are not subject to Congressional dysfunction.”
Ah, I think I see part of the problem.
If overcoming “Congressional dysfunction” is simple, why does it still exist?
Why did Congress need to patch together FAA funding with more than 20 short-term extensions rather than pass simple solutions earlier this decade and last?
Maybe past Congresses just didn’t “truly want to fix the real problems facing the FAA.” Those very Congresses DeFazio was a member of.
Mr. DeFazio, you aren’t my representative, so I know you don’t care what I think, but may I suggest you not use patronizing language? While I believe most rational people agree that passing solid, common sense legislation should be simple, the reality of actually doing so has proven otherwise. Repeatedly.
But why is it so difficult? Because rational people can justifiably have different opinions on a topic and disagree on proposed solutions.
For example, my wife and I typically take different routes when driving to or from our kids’ school. My preferred route is no more correct than hers. Both get us to school, yet we each succeeded taking a different path, literally. Overly simplistic, sure. But that doesn’t make the example invalid.
Bluster aside, the bullet points of the Aviation Funding Stability Act bill do look solid. All DeFazio and Larsen have to do is get fellow committee members to agree, pass a vote of the House, marry up with a Senate bill on the same topic and get the President’s signature.
See? Simple.
Most of you gentlemen have very good ideas especially on the topic of term limits. If we truly want to get term limits to become law we have to all know that the legislative bodies will not do it themselves. I implore you to get involved with the COS (Convention of States) and it is not a Constitutional Convention as so many people think. It is a convention of states that will pass laws to take back their sovereignty and enforce Article 5 of our Constitution. There have been 12 states that have already passed the bills to do this. We need 34 states to get it done. Please get involved with the movement if you sincerely want change.
The Democrats have no say over any of this since they lost the election. Their ‘ideas’ are broken as proven by the debt they ran up and the borders they failed to protect.
Getting taxes cut and government cut down are not just ideas, they are IMPERATIVE now that the Dems have wrecked the economy with the debt.
Pay for what you use has to replace big government debt. If GA and commercial aviation use it then they need to PAY for it.
The devil is always in the details. And so it is with Representative DeFazio’s proposed “fix” for FAA funding. So the FAA would use the Aviation Trust Fund to pay for personnel and ongoing activities? Great. Unfortunately, while the salaries of current and future FAA employees might be secure, the future of future infrastructure development and modernization is less rosy. I have personal experience with a similar trust fund arrangement authorized in the early 20th Century for the US Forest Service. Reforestation of cut over lands and after wildfire? Who can argue with that! Unfortunately, the trust fund approach looked better on paper than in reality. It resulted in huge bloat and inflated costs. I recall an Administrative Officer who, when asked about how to contain rapidly inflating costs responded “who cares???”. Similar trust fund approaches are now being considered to fund fire fighting and it’s easy to see the same bloat result. There are lessons here we should be mindful of when we think about the FAA. Any time a an agency receives a ‘Carte Blanc’ offered by Congress it creates the evils of self appropriation and bloat. What little I’ve seen of Rep. DeFazio’s proposal suggests it panders to the ATC unions, but would have few beneficial outcomes for GA or for the US aviation system long term.
Excellent position, Ben. If somehow — magically — we could hook a generator to these people’s jaws, the energy crisis would be over. We’d have free electricity. The Congressional side of the equation on the subject is one thing, and the FAA performance side of the equation is another. Neither is doing their job correctly. All they do is flap their jaws — especially when they fear retribution — and then do nothing. A small band of non performers has taken over both the Government and the Bureaucracy!
I’d take your idea a step further. Don’t do your job … we take away your responsibility and authority to accomplish it. In other words … DO your job or else. It STILL grates on me hearing the FAA Administrator imploring the crowd in his “Meet the Boss” forum at Airventure 2014 and 2015 telling us that Medical Reform was imminent and that Congressional intervention should not be attempted. How’d THAT work out for us? Thank goodness for Sen. Inhofe, et al.
As a pilot OR an A&P, if I do something wrong and cross their path, an Army of lawyers, laws and severe punishments promptly follow … with little ability to defend youself or use a get outta jail card. It’s time that the FAA AND the Congress start doing their jobs instead of expending their energies flapping their jaws and trying to make us think that they’re doing something. This Fazio character is an excellent example of why term limits are now long overdue, as the first commenter suggested.
So you agree with my comment earlier that there should be a salary penalty for FAA management for not meeting deadlines set by Congress?
And how about, once you have hit the 30% or more point, your pension is equally hit permanently?
Think the FAA management will start getting things done when their wallet and pension are being reduced?
How soon do you think we will have certificates with Photo under this plan? Because of Ex Post Facto, a new deadline would have to be given once that law is passed. And I’ll bet a donut that it will get done and rapidly.
Forced and enforced Term Limits will help and be a big improvement we all (except those affected, those life-long leeches in office) know but “they” will never cut their own job out so a way must exist to force them out.
I feel like this article is a bit disingenuous; pretending a member of Congress (especially in the minority party) can actually make change happen is a misunderstanding of how Congress functions — or more accurately fails to function. I hate to see people blames when their good-idea legislation fails to pass for no good reason. At least he’s trying to do something good! The people talking about the incompetence of the FAA’s ATC are suggesting its technology lags others (not true!) and that its performance is subpar (again, the statistics don’t support that.) It’s hard to reach agreement on policy when you can’t agree on basic facts.
At this point, the partisan bickering in the Congress is to blame; it’s more or less impossible to get Congressional Republicans and Democrats to agree on much of anything, even things that are incredibly obvious. Historically, bipartisanship was possible and members of the Senate from opposing parties were actually personally friends who just disagreed on what was the best way to achieve a common vision for our country. Now, the visions are widely divergent (when anything resembling a vision is articulated at all), and it makes agreement on anything nearly impossible.
Aviation is one of many casualties in these battles, and we’re kidding ourselves if we pretend we’re being hit as hard as many other groups.
Sounds like The Honourable Rep DeFazio is as full of ineptitude and meaningless bluster as most of the other lifetime inhabitants of Capitol Hill.
Term Limits. Puh-leez. And don’t tell me we already have them by voting them out. Party dollars and influence makes that a specious argument, at beat.
While at it, how about teeth in directives to the FAA? How many times has Congress told the FAA to get something done and the FAA has failed to meet the deadlines?
How about the management of the FAA being penalized by a 10% pay cut for failing to meet a deadline that was law (passed by Congress signed by president)? And make that a non-refundable pay cut, with other penalties if they still haven’t complied 6 months beyond the deadline?
Things like this happen in the biz world. And it gets people to be motivated to get a job done.