FAA funding extended to consider privatizing Air Traffic Control

President Obama has signed a bill that would extend funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through July 15.

Funding was set to run out on March 31, but Congress still is working to pass a long-term extension. The extension is controversial because it includes a provision to privatize Air Traffic Control operations, which currently are managed by the FAA.

For more on this temporary extension, visit www.GovTrack.us.

For more on the issue of privatizing air traffic control in the United States, see our discussion.

Congress proposes privatizing Air Traffic Control in US

The House of Representatives is considering a bill that would remove air traffic control from the government and turn it over to a not-for-profit corporation.

Air traffic control currently is managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). If this provision - part of a must-pass bill to fund the FAA - is passed, these operations would be run by the new corporation and funded by fees on air travel. The airline industry would have the largest amount of control over the corporation.

For more, read the TheHill.com story.

For more on the issue of privatizing air traffic control in the United States, see our discussion.

The bill is the Aviation Reform, Innovation, and Reauthorization Act.

Road and bridge repairs extended 2 more months

President Obama has once again signed a short term extension to the Highway Trust Fund.

The previous extension to the fund was set to expire on May 31. This bill extends that by two months - through July 31. Had the fund expired, federal money that pays for state transportation projects would have been cut off - stalling things like road repairs at the peak of construction season.

For more, read the story in TheHill.

You can learn more about the bill at GovTrack.com.

Road and bridge repairs given 10-month extension

President Obama has signed a bill that would keep money flowing toward road and bridge repair and other infrastructure projects.

The extends funding for the Highway Trust Fund, which was going to run out of money at the end of August. The fund pays for about half of all highway projects in the country (states pay the other half of their projects).

The bill is only a short-term fix. It provides money for only 10 months - through May, 2015.

Even that 10 months is not really paid for. Essentially, the federal government will indirectly borrow the money from companies' pension funds. It's a technique known as Pension Smoothing (click to read our explanation).

For more on how the Highway Trust Fund was extended, read the New York Times story.

For an understanding of what the Highway Trust Fund does, the importance of the projects it pays for, how it can be paid for in a responsible way, and how you can influence that, read our discussion of this issue.