FAA Measure Could Face Test Vote on Tuesday

Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-Nev.) acted Thursday evening to limit debate (file cloture) on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) reauthorization bill, as there appears to be no imminent compromise in sight regarding disputed tax provisions and the amendment process.

 
This cloture motion is expected to come to a vote on May 6 at 2:30 p.m., which gives key senators a couple of days to iron out their differences.  Senate Republicans have been adamant that the tax provisions unrelated to aviation be removed from the bill, and if they are not, a cloture motion would not garner their support.  If the cloture motion passes, the Senate would likely resume debate and begin voting on the bill next week. Should the cloture motion fail or not come to a vote, it is expected that the FAA reauthorization bill would likely be pulled from the Senate floor and the farm bill would take its place next week, with negotiations continuing.

 
If no progress in the negotiations is made next week, it could be a fair amount of time before the bill would return to the floor, as the House budget resolution and war supplemental funding could move ahead of the FAA bill on the Senate floor schedule.  The only certainty at the moment is that this is a very fluid situation