Inherency Exts - FAA funding being cut

Inherency Exts - FAA funding being cut

Congress cutting FAA investment at a time where FAA is predicting a doubling of passengers and cargo

Despite unprecedented growth and clear evidence of the economic benefits of infrastructure investments, airports expect to have $80 billion in unmet needs through 2015 because of the flawed system used to pay for infrastructure projects.

That has not always been the case. Airports generated millions of jobs and trillions of dollars for local communities between 2001 and 2010 because President Bill Clinton and Congress made two decisions to improve airport infrastructure planning and investment in 2000.

The first decision allowed local communities to raise more money to finance airport improvements by giving them the authority to increase the passenger facility charge from $3 to $4.50. This helped meet local needs by expanding airport capacity to serve more passengers, handle more cargo, attract more air service and most important: promote business and commerce.

The second decision increased investments in the federal Airport Improvement Program (AIP) so that the money users pay into the nation’s Airport and Airway Trust Fund could be reinvested into the system, including the airports where all of this economic activity begins and ends. The money for this comes from the aviation trust fund which is funded by users.

Growth in jobs and business activity took place because we made a national decision to invest in the future – the airports that serve as the economic hubs of our national aviation system.

The result is that in 2010, airports were responsible for about 8 percent of U.S. gross domestic product and 7 percent of all U.S. jobs. By any standard, that is a significant return on investment. Dollar for dollar, commercial airports rate as a remarkably worthwhile infrastructure investment.

This is not news to other countries. Our international competitors recognize the benefits of modern airport infrastructure. That’s why they are building and expanding airports at a rapid pace (China alone is now building 12 to 15 new airports per year) to prepare for predicted growth in global travel and business.

Unfortunately, we are retreating from these policy and investment decisions at just the wrong time. After five years, 23 extensions and a 14-day shutdown, Congress passed an FAA Reauthorization bill early this year that did not provide for any new funding for airports – the passenger facility charge ceiling was not raised and Airport Improvement Program funding was cut.

Yet as the FAA data show, commercial airports need to begin investing now in order to meet the long-term needs of the traveling public over the next two decades. Commercial airports must have new runways and terminals, and aging facilities must be upgraded. This requires long lead times – as much as eight years – to move through the planning and permitting process. And don’t forget that successful implementation of the future air traffic control system known as NextGen depends on airport infrastructure investment as well.

Economy Adv Exts - Brinks - US economy

And, US sluggish job growth needs revitalization - key to American recovery and global economic stability - the economy is heading towards the cliff's edge

Heather,Stewart 12,the Observer's economics editor,”US jobs slowdown is bad news for the world economy”, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/06/us-jobs-slowdown-bad-news-for-world?newsfeed=true,7/6/12 jeong
America's recovery from the deepest economic crisis in living memory is grinding to a halt. That is the message from today's payrolls report, and it's bad news for the world's biggest economy, and bad news for the world.¶ Yesterday's rash of rate cuts, from central banks in Britain, the eurozone and China, underlined the fact that policymakers everywhere fear the global economy is sliding into a synchronised downturn.¶ Barack Obama's more aggressive approach to keeping the public spending taps turned on, combined with the Federal Reserve's everything-but-the-kitchen sink monetary policy, has helped the US to escape the worst of the chill afflicting Europe and many developing countries over the past twelve months, and the Fed could yet take yet more action – perhaps launching a third round of quantitative easing.¶ But with just 80,000 new jobs created in June – fewer than the 90,000 expected by experts, and far too few to bring down the unemployment rate, which is stuck at 8.2%, it's become increasingly clear that the economy is slowing, even before it plunges over the "fiscal cliff" in 2013, when spending cuts and tax rises will put the squeeze on US growth.¶ Few observers think the coming global slump is likely to be as deep or long-lasting as the recession that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, as confidence collapsed just about everywhere.¶ But that grim episode showed policymakers that in the age of globalisation, there is no such thing as "decoupling": today's economies and financial systems are so closely intertwined that if the crisis is deep enough, everyone gets dragged in. With the US also, it seems, succumbing to the collective cold, there is little hope of anything but a grim year for the world economy in 2012.¶ China is expected to reveal next week that its growth rate has slipped; much of Europe (including the UK) is already in recession; and with Spanish and Italian bond yields back at danger-levels, the deal painstakingly assembled at last week's latest "make-or-break" euro summit appears to be falling apart. So it's hardly surprising US firms are not in the mood to hire thousands of new staff.¶ Like politicians everywhere in the past twelve months, Obama will no doubt do his best to argue – with some justification – that America's slowdown was made overseas. But for the 8.2% of the US workforce who remain stuck on the scrap heap, that will be scant comfort — and this latest news certainly won't help smooth his path back to the White House.¶

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