Amount Includes $3.75 Billion For Airport Improvements

Late Thursday night, the House Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee approved a $139.7 billion spending bill that, in addition to funding several transportation authorization bills over the last few years, also increases the Federal Aviation Administration's budget from the $13.7 billion originally proposed by the Bush administration, to $15.1 billion.

CongressDaily reports that after concerns over the fact the president's original FAA budget proposal fell short of the $14.3 billion authorized for the agency in FY2006, the house panel opened the coffers and agreed to fund the agency at the level previously authorized by Congress.

The FY2007 FAA budget also includes $1 billion more than the $2.75 billion previously allotted for the Airport Improvement Program. The original amount had troubled many of the aviation letter groups (including NATA and AOPA) despite DOT Secretary Norman Mineta's assertion the original proposal was "sufficient" to address all airport construction needs, including repairs made to airports damaged by last year's hurricanes.

Some of the increased funding for the FAA (and other transportation projects) comes at the expense of national rail carrier Amtrak -- which is expected to lose at least $394 million in funds.

The House proposal is not the final word on the FAA budget. A Senate panel is also reviewing the transportation spending bill, and any differences between the two will need to be hashed out into a concurrent proposal before the final budget goes into effect.

The final FAA budget will be funded by a combination of revenues from the trust fund, and the general fund.

FMI: www.house.gov, www.faa.gov