Airport Improvement Program Reauthorization Legislation in the 106th Congress

Publication Date: April 2000

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Transportation

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Abstract:

The Airport Improvement Program (AIP) provides federal grants to airports for capital development. The April 5, 2000 enactment of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (P.L. 106-181) was the culmination of two years of legislative effort to pass a multi-year Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization, including authorization for AIP. The length of the struggle was an outgrowth of the difficulty of the issues Congress faced.

During the 106th Congress, the House and the Senate passed two very different FAA reauthorization bills. It took until March 8, 2000 for conferees to come to agreement and the bill was not signed into law until April 5, 2000. This meant that the AIP was in abeyance for six months starting October 1, 1999.

The House multi-year FAA reauthorization act, the Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (H.R. 1000), also referred to as AIR21, passed the House on June 15, 1999. It proposed a five-year AIP authorization at the following annual levels; $2.475 billion for FY2000, $4.0 billion for FY2001, $4.1 billion for FY2002, $4.25 billion for FY2003, and $4.35 billion for FY2004. It also included provisions for doubling the ceiling on Passenger Facility Charges(PFCs) under certain conditions. The increase of annual AIP spending and many of the formula changes in the bill were dependent on passage of provisions in H.R. 1000 that would have taken the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (hereafter, the aviation trust fund).

The Senate version of H.R. 1000 (as amended by S. 82) the Air Transportation Improvement Act passed on October 5, 1999. It includes AIP authorization levels of $2.41 billion for FY1999, $2.475 billion for FY2000, and $2.41 billion annually for FY2001 and FY2002. It also included program changes affecting aspects of funding distribution, PFC waivers, and project eligibility criteria. Although the floor debate focused on non-AIP issues, some changes to AIP were included in the Senate-passed version including a new 5% apportionment for states that include a General Aviation Metropolitan Access and Reliever Airport, as defined in the bill.

On April 5, 2000, the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (FAIR21, P.L. 106-181) was signed by the President. This $40 billion FAA reauthorization Act includes AIP authorizations of $2.475 billion for FY2000, $3.2 billion for FY2001, $3.3 billion for FY2002, and $3.4 billion for FY2003. The Act also Raises the PFC ceiling to $4.50. The new law includes so-called ''guarantees'' that all of each year's receipts and interest credited to the aviation trust fund will be made available annually for aviation purposes. One of the enforcement provisions makes it out-of-order in either the House or Senate to consider legislation for funding FAA's Operations and Maintenance or its Research, Engineering and Development budgets if the AIP and the Facilities and Equipment Budgets are funded below authorized levels. Supporters of AIP hope that this will assure AIP funding at the fully authorized level.

This report will not be updated.