Legislation to reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration programs, including airport construction grants, is moving again on Capitol Hill. At ENR press time, the House was on the verge of a vote on a six-year bill that would freeze authorizations for Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants at $3.35 billion a year through fiscal 2023.

该法案的主要作家，运输和基础设施委员会主席比尔·舒斯特（R-Pa。）提议提出一项修正案，在五年内授权53亿美元用于农村非浴室机场的新机场基础设施赠款计划。它可能会添加到该法案中。

Construction officials hoped the House also would add amendments to boost AIP funds and remove the $4.50 cap on passenger facility charges (PFCs), a key construction funding source. It was unclear whether either would be adopted.

An amendment from Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) would raise AIP gradually, to about $4 billion in 2023. Brian Deery, senior director of the Associated General Contractors of America highway and transportation division, says, “Obviously, we’d like to see that [AIP program] boosted up.” He adds, “There’s money in the [aviation] trust fund for it and it’s been flat-level funding for a lot of years.”

如果Barletta的AIP修正案失败，机场补助金仍将有横幅的一年。授权需要年度拨款。AIP今年为43亿美元，这要归功于2018年Omnibus支出措施的10亿美元。

众议员托马斯·马西（Thomas Massie）（r-ky。）的修正案将消除PFC上限，自2000年以来定为4.50美元。FAAPEGS 2017 PFC收藏量为33亿美元。

Industry sees the six-year House measure as a welcome change after three stopgaps since July 2016. The latest extension, enacted March 23 in the omnibus package, lapses Sept. 30.

参议院商务委员会去年6月清算了一项为期四年的美国联邦航空局法案，每年的AIP徒步旅行，最高为37.5亿美元。它保留了$ 4.50 PFC上限。参议院助手说：“我们希望在八月之前进行长期重新授权。”Dave Bauer, American Road & Transportation Builders Association executive vice president, says, “If the House approves a bill, every indication that we’ve heard …from [Hill] leadership and others is that FAA is one of the things that they’re going to do in the remainder of the year.”