Deficit Fight Could Force Tower Closures

Stephen Pope

Thursday, August 02, 2012 at 07:31 PM ET

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The FAA says recent IACRA website problem was related to a network issue. [Credit: FLYING Archive]

Key Takeaways:

Sequestration refers to automatic, across-the-board budget cuts set to take effect if politicians don't agree on a plan to reduce the federal deficit.
These cuts would significantly impact the FAA, slashing over $1 billion from its budget, potentially halting NextGen development, and forcing the closure of numerous air traffic control towers, particularly at smaller airports.
Though initially scheduled for January, a deal postponed the cuts until March 2013, with strong political incentives for lawmakers to compromise before then to avoid widespread negative fallout.

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Have you heard the term “sequestration” in the news lately? It’s a jargony description for the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts that are scheduled to take effect next year unless politicians work out a deal to slash the federal deficit. The FAA will be caught up in this fiscal belt-tightening, to the tune of more than $1 billion that would immediately be slashed from its budget. If that happens, some warn, work on NextGen could grind to a standstill and scores of control towers around the country could be forced to shut down.

Sequestration is the doomsday plan outlined in Congress’ 2011 Budget Control Act, which creates mechanisms for automatic reigning in of spending if a political deal fails to materialize. If this scenario plays out, funding for 250 control towers, 1,200 air traffic controllers and 600 safety inspectors would vanish on March 1 of next year. The FAA, of course, couldn’t allow that to happen, and so would have to divert money from other places (NextGen technology expenditures being a logical choice) to keep towers at the nation’s busiest airports open.