On April 19, the Senate passed H.R. 636 to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), other civil aviation programs, and Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF) revenues through September 30, 2017. The legislation now moves to the House of Representatives, where a six-year FAA reauthorization bill, H.R. 4441, and a related bill on aviation research, H.R. 4489, were marked up and ordered reported by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, respectively, on February 11. Proposed authorization amounts and comparisons to FY2016 appropriations and the Obama Administration's FY2017 request are presented in Table 1. As H.R. 4441 and H.R. 4489 have not been reported, these comparisons are based on those bills as introduced.

Table 1. FAA Major Account Funding Authorization and Appropriations

(dollars in millions)

 

FY2016

FY2017

FY2018

FY2019

FY2020

FY2021

FY2022

Operations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H.R. 4441

9,910

10,112

10,339

10,570

1,637

1,675

1,713

General Fund

1,988

2,055

2,124

2,196

1,637

1,675

1,713

AATF

7,922

8,057

8,215

8,374

 

 

 

Senate-Passed

9,910

10,025

 

 

 

 

 

Appropriation/Request

9,909

9,994

 

 

 

 

 

Airport Improvement Program

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H.R. 4441

3,350

3,424

3,499

3,576

3,655

3,735

3,817

Senate-Passed

3,350

3,750

 

 

 

 

 

Appropriation/Request

3,350

2,900

 

 

 

 

 

Facilities and Equipment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H.R. 4441

2,855

2,914

2,981

3,048

193

197

202

Senate-Passed

2,855

2,862

 

 

 

 

 

Appropriation/Request

2,855

2,838

 

 

 

 

 

Research, Engineering, and Development

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H.R. 4489

166

169

173

174

 

 

 

Senate-Passed

166

169

 

 

 

 

 

Appropriation/Request

166

168

 

 

 

 

 

TOTALS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

House-Introduced

16,281

16,619

16,992

17,368

5,485

5,607

5,732

Senate-Passed

16,281

16,806

 

 

 

 

 

Appropriation/Request

16,281

15,900

 

 

 

 

 

Source: CRS analysis of H.R. 4441 and H.R. 4489 as introduced; Senate-passed H.R. 636; P. L. 114-113, Division L; and FAA Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Estimates.

Notes: House totals for FY2020-2022 do not include Research, Engineering, and Development authorizations as they were not specified in H.R. 4489 as introduced. Also House totals for FY2020-2022 do not include trust fund amounts for operations as the House bill proposes creation of a separate corporation to provide air traffic services that would be funded by user fees set by the corporate board.

The Senate-passed bill and the two committee-approved House bills have substantial differences: