House transportation committee chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.)
has ended his push to privatize the U.S. air traffic control (ATC) system due
to opposition from colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
"We built strong support for this critical reform over
the last two congresses, and we had a golden opportunity to move beyond the
status quo and accomplish positive, transformational change with this bill,"
Shuster said in a statement. "Despite an unprecedented level of support
for this legislation -- from bipartisan lawmakers, industry, and conservative
groups and labor groups alike -- some of my own colleagues refused to support
shrinking the federal government by 35,000 employees, cutting taxes, and
stopping wasteful spending."
Shuster had proposed the privatization measure in each of
the past two congresses as part of broader bills to reauthorize funding for the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Under the bill, ATC management would have been spun off from
the FAA to a nonprofit corporation, whose board of directors would have
representatives from airlines, airports, airline unions, general aviation and the
Department of Transportation.
The proposal won the support of President Trump last year,
and also had the backing of airlines.
Supporters of privatization argue that it would help
fast-track the replacement of the nation's current radar-driven system with the
GPS-based Next Gen system while removing funding of ATC from the squabbles and
politicking that are part of the annual appropriations process.
Last year and in 2016, Shuster was able to shepherd the
proposal through the House transportation committee, but the measure never made
it into Senate versions of FAA reauthorization, even after it received Trump's
support.
Along with the Democrats, who are generally opposed to
privatization, ATC reform also faced resistance from key Republican senators,
whose concerns echoed those of rural airports and general aviation, which fear
that privatization will favor commercial airlines.
Shuster's decision to give up the battle came as the latest
deadline for FAA reauthorization looms on April 1. The agency is currently
funded under a six-month extension after Congress failed to meet the original
Sept. 30 reauthorization deadline.
Shuster announced in January that this would be his last
term in Congress. He said at the time that he would make the passage of a major
infrastructure bill the top priority of his final year in office.