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US-VOTE-POLITICS-ECONOMY-BIDEN

Michael Reynolds

A deadline to renew the law underpinning the existence of the Federal Aviation Administration coincides with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/27/government-shutdown-house-rejects-senate-spending-bill/" target="_blank">the one to extend federal funding this weekend</a>, leaving the agency facing an especially broad double government shutdown.

If the FAA law and federal funding expire simultaneously, air traffic controllers and some aviation safety inspectors would continue to work while being unpaid. But the training of new air traffic controllers would cease, work on technology upgrades would be disrupted, and the agency would lose more than $50 million a day in revenue from taxes on airline tickets and fuel that help to fund its operations.

As a government shutdown looms, see where federal employees live in the U.S.

No immediate effects are expected for flights or aviation safety, but the twin deadlines put the FAA in an especially precarious position as the shutdown looms. It would come toward the end of a bumpy year in which the agency lacked a full-time leader, grappled with a staffing shortage at a key New York facility and endured a technology failure that closed the nation’s skies for the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that a shutdown would threaten progress the FAA and airlines have made in reducing the number of delayed and canceled flights, while putting extra pressure on air traffic controllers.

“I want you to imagine the pressure that a controller is already under every time they take their position at work,” he said. “And then imagine the added stress of coming to that job from a household with a family that can no longer count on that paycheck.”

The Senate this week linked the fate of the FAA to the broader government funding effort, combining a measure to fund the government as a whole with a three-month extension of the agency’s authorizing law. That proposal is unlikely to pass the House, which instead is considering a stand-alone bill to keep the FAA running until the end of the year.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who chairs the committee that oversees the agency, urged her colleagues to pass both a government funding measure and an FAA extension.

“A shut down without [FAA] authorization is a double whammy on the workforce and technology upgrades that the FAA desperately needs,” she said in a statement. “Failing to act now will intensify pressure on an already strained aviation system and workforce, and disrupt travel for the American public.”

Capitol Hill

The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/23/government-shutdown-spending-bill-vote/" target="_blank">Senate approved a $1.2 trillion spending bill</a> in the wee hours of Saturday morning to prevent a brief partial government shutdown, sending the bill to President Biden to sign into law. See how every <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/03/23/senate-vote-government-shutdown-bill-results/" target="_blank">Senate</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/03/22/house-vote-government-shutdown-bill-results/" target="_blank">House member voted</a>.

Rich Santa, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said a possible shutdown adds a layer of uncertainty to a workforce stretched thin by staffing shortages. Without an FAA extension, he said, “the connections may be a little tighter, your on-time arrivals may be a little tighter, and you might experience a bit more delays.”

How a government shutdown could affect your travel plans

During the last government shutdown in 2018-2019, disruptions to air travel eventually helped to persuade President <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> to back down from demands to fund a border wall. Air traffic controllers were required to come to work, but as the shutdown extended into its second month, absenteeism eventually led to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-the-shutdown-ended-americans-just-had-it-up-to-here/2019/01/25/11a19848-20d4-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html" target=_blank>delays at major airports</a>.

Congress last passed a bill authorizing the FAA in 2018, setting the agency’s direction for five years. As that law’s expiration date approached, lawmakers began working on another long-term bill. The House <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2023/07/20/reagan-national-flights-amendment-fails/" target="_blank">passed its version in July</a>, but the Senate’s version has been mired in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2023/06/15/reagan-national-airport-flights/" target="_blank">dispute over qualifications for airline pilots</a>.

Congress has struggled in the past to agree on a path forward for the agency. After the authorizing legislation expired in 2007,<b> </b>lawmakers passed 23 short extensions, eventually agreeing to a long-term bill in 2012.<b> </b>For a two-week period in 2011, Congress deadlocked even on a short-term measure, and the law underpinning the FAA lapsed.

“This is no way to run the best aviation system in the world,” said Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary at the time.

Back then, about 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed, and work on federally funded airport construction projects was disrupted. Taxes on airline tickets and aviation fuel also expired, and the FAA missed out on an estimated $400 million in revenue.

The effects would be much greater this weekend if the government shutdown coincides with a lapse in the FAA law. The agency would furlough more than 17,000 workers. Those in key safety positions — about 25,000 are deemed essential — would be required to come to work, unpaid. As it did in 2011, the FAA would stop collecting some taxes, and airport construction projects would be jeopardized.

The agency also would have to stop training newly hired air traffic controllers and furlough about 1,000 who are in the training pipeline. Buttigieg said that would be a significant disruption at a time when the agency is hiring briskly and trying to boost staffing levels at control towers and other facilities.

“Even a shutdown lasting a few days could mean we will not hit our staffing and hiring targets next year,” Buttigieg said.

In a letter Tuesday, aviation industry groups urged lawmakers to extend the FAA law.

“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,” the groups wrote.

The U.S. Travel Association estimated that a government shutdown could cost the U.S. travel economy as much as $140 million a day in economic losses.

There could be a silver lining for travelers if the ticket taxes lapse. Under that scenario, the government wouldn’t collect a 7.5 percent tax on tickets, or a $4.80 per-leg fee on most domestic flights or $21.10 fee on international flights — savings that airlines could pass on to customers. But any savings would not be guaranteed: In 2011, most airlines held ticket prices steady while pocketing the difference. Some lawmakers objected, and Congress tried to claw back the money once it restored the taxes, but the Internal Revenue Service declined to collect it.

What is affected by a government shutdown and how it could impact you

Southwest Airlines declined to specify what it would do if the taxes expired, saying it expects Congress to pass an FAA bill. Other airlines did not respond to requests for comment.

Buttigieg said other parts of the Transportation Department would be disrupted by a shutdown, including work on regulations to protect airline passengers and improve railroad safety. But other agencies within the department would mostly be insulated because their budgets fall outside the normal appropriations process. They include the Federal Highway Administration, which funds road construction, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

At the Transportation Security Administration, part of the Department of Homeland Security, 59,000 of the agency’s 62,000 employees are considered essential and would continue working in the event of a shutdown, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said Tuesday. But he warned that an extended shutdown could mean longer screening times at airports.

Pekoske, who was TSA administrator during the previous shutdown, said the lapse in funding took a toll on his agency, with growing numbers of TSA officers saying they were unable to report to work. That, in turn, increased airport screening times. Pekoske warned that a similar scenario could play out again if the shutdown lasts for an extended period.

“It’s very, very hard for anybody to go for 20 days, 30 days, 40 days or longer without receiving a paycheck,” he said. “It impacts the ability of people to get to work, to pay to put gas in their vehicles, to pay for parking. It impacts their ability to pay the individuals that provide care for their children.”

University of Oxford, BA in history

New York University, MA in journalism and international relations

Ian Duncan is a reporter covering federal transportation agencies and the politics of transportation. He previously worked at the Baltimore Sun for seven years, covering city hall, the military and criminal justice. He was part of the Sun's team covering Freddie Gray's death in 2015 and then-Mayor Catherine Pugh's Healthy Holly books scandal.

Ian Duncan

B.S. from Boston University 

Lori Aratani writes about transportation issues, including how people get around -- or don't. Her beat includes airlines and airports, as well as the agencies that oversee them.