US: Senate FAA bill won’t include air-traffic control privatization

The hopes of many House Republican leaders to shift the entire US air-traffic system under an independent, nonprofit corporation are about to die before a Senate committee holds its first hearing, according to industry officials and others familiar with the matter. GOP members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last month pushed through what they described as a “transformational” bill stripping such functions—along with some 38,000 associated employees—out of the FAA. But the dramatic traffic control proposal isn’t expected to be included when the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation introduces its bipartisan version of the legislation as soon as this week, the people familiar with the matter said. Details of the Senate package were being worked on Tuesday and were expected to be completed as early as Wednesday, according to these people. But if the Senate measure leaves out the controversial traffic control provision as expected, it would be highly unlikely to be put back during committee consideration or on the Senate floor. With the agency’s legislative authority slated to expire at the end the month, both sides of Capitol Hill are gearing up to pass a short-term FAA extension bill. Once that occurs, proponents of privatization will lose important leverage to try to enact sweeping changes. <br/>