WASHINGTON, D.C. — Funding for contract towers started its long process through government when a subcommittee of the House of Representatives included it as part of the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Transportation, which has the FAA and other agencies.
The bill covers fiscal year 2014, which goes from Oct. 1 of this year to Sept. 30, 2014.
Proposed funding covering 251 towers amounts to $240 million. It includes $10.35 million for the contract tower cost-sharing program.
The next step is scheduled for Thursday, June 27, when the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the measure. The Senate also is expected to take up its version of the DOT-FAA funding this week.
Spencer Dickerson, executive director of the U.S Contract Tower Association, called the inclusion significant and one which “reaffirms the strong support that exists in Congress for keeping contract towers open well into the future, even under difficult budget circumstances.”
The Contract Tower Association was created by the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) in 1996 to promote the benefits of the contract tower program and to enhance aviation safety at smaller airports across the country.
WE the people usually don’t want useless government spending and over reach. But not in my back yard! Lets just put a tower up at every airport. Why not, evidently there is not a requirement on traffic volume to warrant ridiculous spending.
I guess contract towers are now a political issue. That’s a real shame. Many of them, but certainly not all of them should be closed. The FAA went about it the wrong way. Now it has become a political issue and the FAA is going to be required to keep them. It’s a shame they can’t look at the traffic volume and mix and make an intelligent decision on a per airport basis. I guess making intelligent analysis and decisions has become too much to ask of our bureaucrats.