Pete Domenici: “after months of negotiation, we have reached an agreement and completed work on the Aviation Investment and Reform Act…”

“after months of negotiation, we have reached an agreement and completed work on the Aviation Investment and Reform Act of the 21st Century, the so-called AIR-21. AIR-21 is a fair bill. It reflects a compromise on many of my concerns about the budgetary treatment of our federal aviation accounts. It also reflects some of my commitments, one of which is to increase investment in aviation programs. I am a strong proponent of safety, and this bill increases funding for safety programs, including funds for air traffic control modernization. In addition, and very important to the State of New Mexico, many of the programs within this bill focus on and support small or rural airports. Finally, each of these accomplishments are realized while budgetary discipline is maintained. In 2001, a total of $12.7 billion is authorized for aviation programs. This represents an increase in budget resources of $2.7 billion over the 2000 levels. This is extremely generous to the FAA. In fact, it exceeds the President's 2001 budget request by $1.5 billion. Over the 2001 through 2003 time period, AIR-21 authorizes nearly $40 billion.”