News
FAA User Fees Still On the Horizon
by Scott Burgess, released on Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Against all the odds, an early and tough fight in Congress to strike down user fees came within one vote of succeeding last week. Members of the Senate Commerce Committee voted on an amendment introduced by Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and John Sununu (R-NH) that would strike proposed language calling for a per-flight user fee as part of the Committees overall "reauthorization," or funding proposal for the FAA (bill S.1300). The tally on the anti-user fee amendment was tied 11-11 before a final vote was cast, resulting in a defeat for the amendment, 11-12.
Senators Nelson and Sununu introduced the amendment, which was supported by Sens. Thomas Carper (D-DE), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), John Ensign (R-NV), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), David Vitter (R-LA), and Gordon Smith (R-OR). The Committees vote was just the beginning of what will be a long battle as a number of Congressional Committees weigh in on FAA funding issues.
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