US: FAA restructuring is grounded by Senate opposition

A bid by House Republicans to shift the federal air-traffic control system to a nonprofit corporation’s control has been sidelined by bipartisan Senate opposition, according to congressional staffers, airline industry officials and others participating in the process. Continuing disagreements between senators and the Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee over a FAA reauthorisation bill have created a legislative logjam, these people said, likely to last until at least next spring or summer. The anticipated result is that the agency will be hobbled with another brief, stopgap funding bill that all sides had hoped to avoid. Such an outcome would maintain the FAA’s basic spending levels and programs, while prompting uncertainty about new policy initiatives and leaving the agency without longer-term financial stability that would benefit its efforts to modernize the nation’s aging air-traffic control system.<br/>