The Senate on Thursday cleared a procedural hurdle as it moved closer to reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before Friday’s midnight deadline.
Senators voted 84 to 13 to open debate on the five-year reauthorization, putting them within striking distance of approving the complex package.
“We hope to achieve this today to keep the FAA funded and operational before tomorrow’s deadline,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) said on the floor. “The work we are doing at the FAA will have practical consequences for millions of Americans who travel by air every day, so senators have every reason in the world to continue working on a bipartisan basis to achieve this.”
However, lawmakers have a number of problematic issues they are trying to resolve to avoid a slippage, with questions about when the Senate will be able to finish its work. The headline for this is continued pressure from senators from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to secure a vote on an amendment to overturn a provision in the final package that adds five new slots (or 10 round-trip flights) out of Ronald Reagan National Airport of Washington (DCA).
Negotiators and top lawmakers have been trying to get the final bill across the finish line without allowing members to vote on additional amendments. But senators from Maryland and Virginia continued to complain that they might not be able to overturn the DCA provision, which they opposed last year. They argue it is unsafe and will cause numerous delays at the airport to accommodate a few more long-haul flights.
All four senators voted no in the opening debate.
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a new statement Thursday that they will not greenlight a plan to reduce time for the chamber to complete its work quickly.
“Last month’s near miss at DCA is a red warning light that this airport is overloaded and that putting more flights on America’s busiest runway is a terrible idea,” they said, referring to a incident in mid-April.
“We cannot in good conscience give the green light to this plan until we are committed to the fact that there will be an opportunity to put our amendment to a vote and to persuade our colleagues to prioritize the safety of millions of passengers over the desire of some senators on a direct flight home,” said the duo.
Senators from Maryland and Virginia also oppose the possibility of a one-week extension by the FAA, over complaints that it would only give senators more of a chance to run out the clock without a vote on an amendment.
The bill’s managers were encouraged by the strong vote, although the Maryland-Virginia Senate contingent voted against moving forward to final approval.
“I think our colleagues want to get this done,” Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) told reporters. “This is a body where people can object, so my guess is that there are still objections to adding other things, but maybe there is something we can work out, and we are still trying.”
Cantwell and Senator Ted Cruz (Texas), the top Republican on the Commerce Committee who is handling the bill for the GOP, told reporters that if the Maryland-Virginia senators won an amendment vote, and they did, it could “unravel” the entire account.
DCA has long focused on short-haul flights under 1,250 miles, with fewer than a dozen exceptions. Most long-haul flights use Dulles International Airport and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Dulles is a hub for United Airlines, which lobbied hard against the push to add DCA flights last year.
Key members also tried to keep all unrelated changes out of the FAA package, fearing that including one item over another would trigger a series of holds and complicate final approval.
“Clearly, we have a number of objections on our side that are unlikely to go away,” Senate Minority Leader John Thune (RS.D.) said Wednesday. “It’s hard to imagine a scenario where you get a non-German amendment over the objections of everyone else who has non-German amendments they want considered.
The House will need to approve the bill next week for it to reach President Biden’s desk.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
