Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 4691 - Airport and Airway Safety, Capacity, and Intermodal Transportation Act of 1992

(House)
(Oberstar (D) Minnesota and 3 others)

The Administration supports House passage of H.R. 4691, but will seek Senate amendments to:

—   Delete the linkage between the authority to levy Passenger Facility Charges and specified levels of contract authority.

—   Delete the provision creating a commission to study the airline industry. The industry has already been, and continues to be, the subject of comprehensive and objective studies.

—   Authorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to institute a new program to hire retired military controllers at low-activity air traffic control towers. This will provide a cost-effective means of staffing selected low-activity locations while offering military retirees alternative employment at a time of downsizing. (Low-activity towers are no longer used as training facilities for air traffic Controllers. This eliminates the expense of relocating controllers into higher activity facilities at the conclusion of their training.)

—   Authorize the FAA to increase its involvement in intermodal airport access improvements and in the local intermodal transportation planning process.

Pay-As-You-Go Scoring

H.R. 4691 provides permanent spending authority for certain fees currently collected by the FAA. This would increase direct spending. Therefore, it is subject to the pay-as-you-go requirement of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1990. No offsets to the direct spending increases are provided in the bill. A budget point of order applies in both the House and the Senate against any bill that is not fully offset under CBO scoring. If, contrary to the Administration's recommendation, the House waives any such point of order that applies against H.R. 4691, the effects of this legislation would be included in a look back pay-as-you-go sequester report at the end of the Congressional session.

OMB's preliminary scoring estimates of this bill are presented in the table below. Final scoring of this legislation may deviate from these estimates. If H.R. 4691 were enacted, final OMB scoring estimates would be published within five days of enactment, as required by OBRA. The cumulative effects of all enacted legislation on direct spending will be issued in monthly reports transmitted to the Congress.

ESTIMATES FOR PAY-AS-YOU-GO
(Outlays in Millions)