News Staff posted on March 22, 2013 12:04
Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) continues to push for relief from FAA closure of contract air traffic control towers and will offer an amendment to the Senate budget resolution, currently on the Senate floor. HAI and other aviation associations are closely monitoring a forthcoming FAA decision on which towers will be closed. As covered in recent days on HAI's RotorNews, a similar proposal drew bipartisan support when it was offered to the CR, but it never came up for a vote amid opposition from the Obama administration.
Senator Moran continues to express optimism that his amendment will pass this time around. "I would guess that we get more than 60 [votes]," he said, even though amendments to the budget only need a simple majority to pass. "As I pursued my amendment, no one in the Senate would tell me they were opposed to my amendment."
The amendment alone will not stave off the tower closures, though, since the budget is nonbinding and does not appropriate money. Moran said a separate funding bill would be needed before April 7 to keep the towers open.