The U.S. Governmental Affairs Committee is the policy making body for federal government programs, legislation and regulations affecting airport operators. Through the committee, airport directors and government relations staff from small, medium and large airports meet and discuss a wide array of issues and concerns. The members develop consensus policy positions on federal legislative and regulatory matters for the ACI-NA's Board of Directors. The committee guides ACI-NA's government relations activities to represent and advocate the interests of U.S. airports before Congress and the Administration, particularly the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration.

As we near the end of 2010 and the 111th Congress, there are several issues of importance to airports that Congress must deal with prior to adjourning for the year.  These were discussed at the U.S. Governmental Affairs Committee meeting in Pittsburgh along with the airport issues likely to be before the 112th Congress, which convenes in January.

During the upcoming Lame Duck session, which begins Nov. 15, Congress will need to take action on the pending FAA reauthorization bill.  There are two possible scenarios for the FAA bill:  The Senate reaches agreement on the issue of slots at Reagan National Airport and passes their version of the FAA bill, which includes a $1 hike in the Passenger Facility Charge and (we’ve been told)  no ARFF language and sends the bill to the House.  The House will either accept the Senate language, most of which has been worked out through negotiations between the Senate Commerce and House Transportation Committees or the House sends back the agreed upon language with minor changes, including their $7 PFC ceiling.  Or, the House and Senate pass yet another extension of FAA’s operating authority – it would be number 17 – for a period of time that could range from four or five months to two years.

The House and Senate are also expected to take action on several tax issues, including the extension of major provision in the 2001 and 2003 tax bills as well as a package of tax extenders (i.e. other tax provisions such as the research and development tax credit, that are set to expire at the end of the year).  Congressman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate John Kerry (D-Mass.), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, continue to work with ACI-NA on obtaining an extension of the AMT relief for private activity bonds included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that is set to expire at the end of this year.

Congress also has to deal with the appropriations bills for the current fiscal year (2011) and debate continues on whether the two chambers will pass a continuing resolution setting funding levels for all 12 bills at a specified level (there is discussion on setting domestic discretionary spending at fiscal year 2008 levels) or trying to work out provisions in all 12 bills and passing them as a package in omnibus appropriations bill.

As for the 112th Congress that will be sworn in next January, ACI-NA staff will be carefully reviewing the results of the mid-term elections and the changes that will require in the makeup of key committees, including the Commerce, Finance and Government Affairs and Homeland Security in the Senate and Transportation and Infrastructure, Homeland Security and Ways and Means Committees in the House, as we prepare the legislative agenda for new congress.

The ACI-NA/AAAE Legislative Conference Feb. 1-3 in Washington will provide an early opportunity for airports to educate the new members of Congress on issues of importance to our industry.

Almost 95 airport managers from around the world have enrolled in ACI's online Certificate in Concession Management program.  The course will help participants understand the role of commercial operations at an airport and how to develop an effective concession plan. Students will discover how to design, locate and size concessions and establish standards of operations and contract monitoring systems. 

Posted on Centerlines Blog on Nov. 1 by Debby McElroy
I just returned from attending the ACI World Governing Board meeting on Sunday, held in conjunction with the Annual General Assembly and ACI Latin America/Caribbean General Assembly in Bermuda.  Yeah, tough duty I know… If you haven’t been there- go!  It is a beautiful place with warm and charming residents who made me feel very welcome even though I was only on the island for two days.

Two key House committee chairs want the Government Accountability Office to assess the TSA progress in securing U.S.-bound air cargo.

Prompted by last week’s discovery of bombs hidden in printer cartridges hidden in cargo shipments to the U.S., House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) along with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who chairs the Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection, asked for the GAO probe.

The 9/11 Commission Act required TSA to establish a system to screen all U.S.-bound cargo transported on passenger aircraft by Aug. 3. TSA has said that they have been able to meet that deadline for all domestic cargo, but have fallen short of meeting the deadline for cargo originating overseas.

The congressmen want the GAO to address the following:

• What are the major challenges to ensuring that cargo on U.S.-bound passenger planes is screened?
• To what extent do existing procedures allow for shrink-wrapped or palletized cargos to be screened?
• Are overseas DHS personnel integrated to address the terrorist threat generally and the cargo security challenges specifically?
• How does DHS use its TSA and CBP overseas workforce to foster greater security of U.S.-bound flights?

The GAO study will take several months. 

On Thursday, ACI-NA will be hosting a free webinar for ACI-NA Members and World Business Partners to discuss the FAA’s proposed Safety Management Systems for airports. The proposal will be reviewed and ACI-NA comment strategy will be discussed.

The webinar will begin at 1 p.m. Washington time and it will be recorded and posted on the ACI-NA website.

The webinar agenda and other materials are available for review prior to the session:

On Oct. 21, the Transportation Security Administration hosted its first Cyber Security in Transportation Summit. This summit provided an opportunity for industry officials to come together and share their expertise and knowledge.

 Cyber Security is increasingly becoming a top priority in the transportation sector, and as such there is a growing need for collaboration and information sharing between federal agencies and with the private sector. The summit began with a keynote speech from Howard Schmidt, the Cyber Security Coordinator and Special Assistant to the President, where he discussed the potential that cyber threats pose to the transportation sector, and what the industry can do to combat them.

Subsequent presentations throughout the day highlighted the emerging threats and trends for 2011, which are centered around two main things – the insider threat, such as disgruntled employees; and malware, such as the Stuxnet worm that can attack Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems that used to control and monitor industrial processes including manufacturing, production, power generation, fabrication, and refining – the essential processes necessary to run the country.

ACI-NA was well represented at several recent industry conferences focused on NextGen issues.

On Oct. 19 and 20, the fourth annual Global Performance Based Navigation Summit in Seattle brought together several hundred experts on advanced airplane navigation systems and procedures to discuss the impact of performance based navigation on NextGen. For the first time the conference had a strong focus on airport interests and concerns.

One prevalent theme emphasized on a panel by ACI-NA member Mike Ehl, Director of Aviation Operations for the Port of Seattle, was the need to involve airports early in the process of designing new procedures and to take advantage of the airport’s intimate familiarity with local community and political issues. Associate member Greg Albjerg, HNTB, continued the theme of needing early airport involvement in his discussion of the environmental advantages and risks of NextGen procedures. An environmental panel featuring World Business Partner Paul Dunholter of BridgeNet International and Dick Marchi, ACI-NA Senior Advisor, also emphasized the need for early recognition of the potential negative consequences of advanced procedures, which can result in flight paths with railroad-like concentrations of high frequency overflight and the attendant concentration of noise impacts.

In separate sessions, associate member Rich Golaszewski, GRA Inc., reviewed the economic arguments for NextGen equipage and Marchi outlined the operational capabilities airports need, in order for NextGen to successfully address their capacity and delay issues.

At the Air Traffic Control Association annual conference in Washington on Oct. 27, an airport panel featuring Tom Bock, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and ACI-NA associate members Bill Dunlay, Leigh Fisher Associates, and Laddie Irion, URS, presented similar concerns to a large audience of air traffic specialists, including much of the FAA senior leadership. This panel, too, emphasized the need for early attention to airport and environmental issues as NextGen procedures are implemented, as well as the need to transition from vague, generic descriptions of NextGen’s value at airports toward much more specific identification of operational capabilities, quantified capacity increases and delay savings.

Experts from federal agencies, airports, airlines, and disability organizations gathered at a conference sponsored by Open Doors in Houston for three days of sharing information on making “airports” universally accessible to all passengers. James Briggs, ACI-NA’s Vice President of Legal Affairs, was one of the featured speakers. While the focus of the conference primarily concerned the needs of passengers with disabilities, improving access typically benefits travelers of all ages and abilities. Making airports accessible becomes even more critical as the “baby boomer” generation, which composes 40 percent of the flying public, begins to reach the golden years.

Some of the emerging technologies that assist not only passengers with disabilities, but all passengers, are visual paging interfaces with FIDs, television monitors, advertisers, and bag claim; mobile check-in, boarding passes, and flight information; and mobile detailed maps and tactile visual maps of airport terminals.

The FAA provided an overview of its fairly new program for conducting a document and onsite review of ADA compliance at airports. Some of the items the FAA will examine are accessibility of an airport’s website and the documents on the website, the airport’s ADA coordinator, the airport’s complaint process, and the mandated nondiscrimination language in contracts. As part of this review, the FAA also will spend three to five days at an airport interviewing airport personnel and tenants on regulatory requirements, examining lease agreements, and inspecting accessibility features and requirements at the airport. During this review, the opportunity may arise for the FAA to conduct formal training sessions for airport employees.

Some of the potential service gaps identified by the speakers included wayfinding and signage, accessible websites for providing valuable information before arriving at the airport, accessible hotel and transportation courtesy phones, accessible taxis and hotel shuttles, paging systems for blind or deaf passengers, accommodating the needs of passengers with disabilities during delays caused by cancelled flights, assistance at terminal entrances to airline counters, elevator layouts, steep inclines or long travel distances for wheelchairs, screening checkpoint equipment and procedures not conducive to wheelchair users. One speaker pointed out that the major risk area for passengers with disabilities is the movement from the gate to the aircraft.

The session on emergency preparedness pointed out an issue that should be considered when a terminal must be evacuated, such as for a security breach.  As the service providers evacuate wheelchair passengers from the concourse, the service providers for the airlines will need to re-access the concourse in order to take wheelchairs to, and to evacuate, other wheelchair passengers. If TSA closes the screening checkpoint, service providers will not be able to continue the evacuation of the remaining wheelchair passengers. Another consideration to keep in mind is where to stage these wheelchair passengers upon evacuation from the concourse.  An example was given of a recent terminal evacuation where 250 wheelchair passengers had to be evacuated and the evacuation and clearance of the concourse took six hours.