The Next Generation Air Transportation System: Status and Issues
Opening Statement By Chairman Bart Gordon
Good morning, I want to welcome our witnesses to today’s hearing.
In light of the commemorative ceremony that will be taking place on the Capitol steps later this morning, I intend to keep the hearing moving so that we have adequate opportunity to hear from our witnesses and examine the important issues facing the NextGen program before Members have to depart for the ceremony. I thus will be brief in my opening remarks.
America’s air transportation system has long been the envy of the world, and it is an important contributor to the nation’s economic vitality and quality of life. Yet it is clear that it is a system under stress, and it needs to change.
Congress recognized that fact when it established the Next Generation Air Transportation System initiative – now known as NextGen – in its Vision 100 FAA Reauthorization that was enacted in late 2003. We sought to harness the resources and expertise of FAA, NASA, DOD, Commerce, DHS, and OSTP in a joint effort to transform the nation’s ATC system so that it will be able to handle the anticipated dramatic future increases in travel demand without compromising safety or the environment.
Today’s hearing will provide this Committee with the opportunity to review the progress that has been made to date as well as examine the challenges that need to be addressed.
We should have no illusions about the magnitude of the task – NextGen is a systems engineering, management, and regulatory challenge as complex as any the nation has ever faced – and success is not guaranteed.
Last year, recognizing that NextGen has to succeed, this Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee worked together to frame provisions in the House’s FAA Reauthorization bill – H.R. 2881 – that sought to strengthen the interagency NextGen planning and development effort and to move NextGen R&D into new operational capabilities as soon as practicable.
In that regard, I want to salute Chairman Costello of T&I’s Aviation Subcommittee for his strong leadership in developing the overall FAA Reauthorization bill and for the spirit of cooperation he showed to us. In addition to his T&I responsibilities, he is a valued senior Member of this Committee, and I look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with him and his staff on these important issues in the next Congress.
Yet we also need for the FAA to work cooperatively with us if we are to fulfill our oversight responsibilities with respect to the NextGen initiative. In that regard, it was troubling to find out about the restructuring of the FAA’s NextGen program from news accounts – and not from the FAA itself. And it was even more troubling to find out that the status of the NextGen Joint Planning and Development Office – JPDO – had been downgraded in the FAA in the restructuring…a move directly counter to the intent of the provisions in H.R. 2881. We need to hear why the FAA decided to take such a step in the waning days of the current Administration.
And finally, it is troubling that the FAA did not deliver its testimony for today’s hearing to the Committee until yesterday , giving us little time to review it. I find that unacceptable, and I hope we will not see a repeat of any of these practices when we meet again in the 111th Congress.
Well, we have a great many issues to consider today, so I will close by simply expressing my strong belief that the next President needs to make the NextGen initiative a national priority and ensure that it is given the resources, management attention, and sense of urgency that it warrants. It is that important.
Again, I want to welcome our witnesses, and I look forward to your testimony.
Opening Statement By Chairman Mark Udall (Space and Aeronautics)
I want to thank Chairman Gordon for holding this very timely hearing. It is important that this Committee continue to pay close attention to the progress and challenges of the interagency Next Generation Air Transportation System [NextGen] initiative – the national effort to transform the nation’s aging air traffic control system so that it can accommodate the large increases in travel demand forecast to occur over the next two decades. As I have often stated, America’s aviation system is vital to the continued health of our economy and our competitiveness in the wider world beyond our shores, as well as being important to our quality of life. We need to ensure that we do all that is necessary to maintain its health.
Last year I chaired a Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee hearing on the Joint Planning and Development Office’s progress in planning and coordinating the research necessary to implement NextGen. I opened last year’s hearing by saying that I was troubled by indications that all may not be going as well as hoped with the NextGen effort and that we had not yet seen a clear plan from FAA and the JPDO for implementing agreed-upon NextGen technologies and procedures into the National Airspace System expeditiously. As it turns out, we found out during that hearing that long-promised planning documents and a critical interagency Memorandum of Understanding were not yet completed. I am keenly interested in seeing what progress has been made since that hearing.
Today, the need for NextGen is greater than ever. Passengers are faced with incessant delays, many caused by an aging air traffic control system’s inability to cope with the capacity-reducing effects of bad weather. Over the short term, soaring fuel prices have put some airlines on the brink of economic collapse. Over the longer term, with reduced capital on hand to pay for higher fuel costs, other airlines have postponed purchases of quieter and more fuel efficient aircraft. And just last month, a shutdown of a critical computer system stranded hundreds of aircraft and delayed thousands of passengers. As I said after the incident, the outage demonstrated just how vulnerable our air traffic control system is – and how critical it is to our economic well-being, competitiveness and our quality of life.
Now I want to note that this Committee and this House of Representatives have not been standing still. Last September the House passed an FAA reauthorization bill – which included provisions I authored to improve our air traffic control system – by a healthy margin. Unfortunately, that legislation has not yet cleared the Senate. H.R. 2881 addresses critical needs related to NextGen. The R&D provisions in the House-passed bill will help ensure that the Nation’s air transportation system is able to handle the expected significant growth in future air travel demand over the next twenty years safely, efficiently, and in an environmentally friendly manner.
It is imperative that the Congress help ensure that FAA has the tools it needs to keep the Nation’s air transportation system safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly. With a projected cost to taxpayers as much as $22 billion and to airspace users as much as $20 billion, it is important that we get NextGen right and that those asked to make sizeable investments get a viable return. FAA needs to move smartly and in a focused manner, making sure that announced near term accelerations of regional demonstrations do not detract from the long term benefits promised nationwide.
I recognize that developing and implementing NextGen are enormous challenges. However, we need to look both at where progress is being made and where improvement is needed. I look forward to reviewing the testimony of today’s distinguished panel of witnesses and to getting their constructive suggestions on how we can help make the transition to NextGen a reality.
Witnesses
Panel
1 - Ms. Victoria Cox
Senior Vice President, NextGen and Operations Planning Air Traffic Organization Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Organization Federal Aviation Admini
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4 - Dr. Paul G. Kaminski
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Technovation Inc. Technovation Inc.
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2 - Dr. Gerald L. Dillingham
Director Physical Infrastructure Issues Government Accountability Office Physical Infrastructure Issues Government Accountability Office
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3 - Mr. Calvin L. Scovel III
Inspector General Department of Transportation Department of Transportation
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5 - Professor Ian A. Waitz
PARTNER Director Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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