DARREN SHANNON / WASHINGTON DC
Agency draws in purse strings on series of projects after White House imposes a near $500 million cut in R&D budget
The US Federal Aviation Administration is deferring three major air traffic management programmes in response to a near $500 million cut in its 2005 research and development funding.
The knife will fall on controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC), the GPS local-area augmentation system, and the VHF datalink Mode 3 voice system known as Nexcom, each of which will receive no funding in 2005. Other programmes, including the FAA-favoured Wide-area Augmentation System and standard terminal automation replacement system, are also budgeted to receive reduced funding next year.
The $493 billion shortfall has been imposed on the FAA's $2.9 billion facilities and equipment budget by a White House increasingly annoyed with the regulator's inability to finish contracts on deadline and within budget. The same Bush administration officials have also increased the US Department of Transportation's 2005 budget by over 4% to $59 billion, of which the FAA gets about $14 billion.
FAA administrator Marion Blakey says these programmes were targeted because "the priority is for programmes already under way".
The proposed spending cuts were immediately attacked as insufficient by the DoT's inspector general Kenneth Mead. "The FAA will have to justify all its programmes," says the DoT's auditor. "While funds [from the Aviation Trust Fund, which accounts for the vast majority of FAA revenues are dropping, the FAA's costs keep rising. There is some explaining to do," he adds.
This stance is likely to be adopted by Congress during the committee debates over President George Bush's $2,400 billion 2005 budget - which is already under bipartisan attack - as Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reports are usually used as templates for congressional debate. The OIG's sustained attack on the FAA has been cited as the catalyst for the White House's recent penalty.
Mead offers insight into the forthcoming debate, saying that the FAA should be asked to justify several programmes, notably the future telecommunications infrastructure programme, which connects air traffic control sites, and the en route automation modernisation programme, an upgrade to ATC centres that has delayed the deployment of CPDLC.
Both programmes will gain about $80 million in 2005 over the combined $288 million appropriated for 2004.
The FAA will also be asked to justify its operational costs, which continue to increase even as the USA's aviation industry contracts. "Pay, benefits and the cost of maintaining the FAA are increasing, even when we see compression [in some funds]," says Mead.
An inquiry into the FAA's air traffic management programmes could also embarrass transportation secretary Norman Mineta, who just two weeks ago staked his reputation on a new technology-heavy initiative to triple the USA's air space capacity.
Source: Flight International
