For Release: Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Contact: David Gillies: 202-225-5661
COSTELLO AND PETRI CIRCULATING ANTI-USER FEE LETTER
WASHINGTON - House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello (D-IL) and Ranking Member Thomas Petri (R-WI) are circulating a letter urging President Obama not to include general aviation user fees in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget. Both Costello and Petri support maintaining the current mechanism of using fuel taxes to support the Aviation Trust Fund, as is contained in H.R. 915, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009, which passed the House earlier this year. They expect to send the letter to the President within two weeks.
The letter states:
“The current system of aviation excise taxes has proven to be a stable and efficient source of funding for our aviation system. Furthermore, we believe that user fees will place an undue administrative burden, and associated costs, on system users – particularly small businesses and general aviation users….
“….Aviation user fees have been proposed several times by past Administrations, and the House has opposed this approach in legislation to reauthorize the FAA in both the 110th and 111th Congresses. Therefore, proposing user fees to finance the FAA would be a non-starter in the House and a major distraction from the number one priority, the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), to ensure our nation’s air traffic control infrastructure is robust for the future.”
“We want to make it clear that a user fee proposal will not be well received in the House,” said Costello. “Having another debate on user fees – which have been rejected repeatedly – will only take our attention away from NextGen. We must not allow this to happen.”
Petri said, “Administrative costs and burdens make user fees an inefficient way of financing our aviation system. The House's position on this has been clear for several years.”
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