Thomas E. Petri: “I thank my colleague, Mr. English from Pennsylvania, for yielding, and I appreciate the hard work that he and members of…”

“I thank my colleague, Mr. English from Pennsylvania, for yielding, and I appreciate the hard work that he and members of his committee have done in this area. I had the privilege of appearing before his subcommittee as we were considering the financing of this legislation. In fact, in September of last year, the House considered and passed a bill that resulted from that hearing, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007, which was H.R. 2881. It reauthorized the FAA for the next 4 years. On several occasions after that, the House passed bills to extend the FAA programs. Unfortunately, the other body has taken no action on any of these measures; therefore, the authority of the FAA's essential programs and taxes were extended through the end of this month as part of the omnibus appropriations act. Regrettably, those FAA programs and authorities not extended in the omnibus expired on September 30. Additionally, although the omnibus appropriation bill provided money, it did not extend the FAA's contract authority, and therefore as of December 31, the FAA no longer has the authority to make new obligations, including sorely needed Airport Improvement Program grants to allow airports to complete vital infrastructure improvement projects.”