WASHINGTON — The Senate is racing against a Friday deadline to pass legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration at a moment of intense uncertainty and disruption in the air travel system, but a host of policy disputes and unrelated issues are threatening to prolong the debate.
As one of the few remaining bills considered a must-pass item this year, the FAA package has become a magnet for dozens of amendments and policy riders that lawmakers are fighting for a vote on, which has slowed its progress in the Senate. Regional interests have also scrambled the usual political alliances among lawmakers, making quick action trickier.
“All of us need to work constructively and with urgency to finish the job on FAA,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “Nobody, absolutely nobody, should want us to slip past the deadline. That would needlessly increase risks for so many travelers and so many federal workers.”
The bill, which would reauthorize the agency for the next five years, would provide more than $105 billion to the FAA and another $738 million to the National Transportation Safety Board for airport modernization, technology programs and safety. It also would bolster the hiring and training of air traffic controllers, codify airlines’ refund obligations to passengers and strengthen protections for passengers with disabilities.
The legislation is a bipartisan compromise negotiated over months by the Senate and House committees with jurisdiction over the FAA, after Congress authorized several short-term extensions of the agency when lawmakers failed to meet earlier deadlines. The House passed its version of the bill almost a year ago in a lopsided vote of 351-69.
“To get FAA done, we need haste and a common desire to get to yes,” Schumer said Wednesday. “Any member who insists on extraneous change will only increase the likelihood that we miss the deadline.”
With the legislation threatening to stall, the House on Wednesday approved a one-week extension before leaving Washington for the weekend. But it was not clear whether the Senate would be able to follow suit before the deadline, and leaders continued to push to move the longer-term overhaul.
The debate comes at a time of acute uncertainty about the aviation system, which has had a recent spate of concerning episodes such as dangerous near collisions on runways, plane malfunctions, and thousands of flight delays and cancellations.
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