ATC Question

Let me start by saying !!!! THIS IS NOT POLITICAL !!!!!!!!

In October the Multi-Year FAA re-authorization Bill was signed that fund the FAA for 5 years (90 billion).

So why is the ATC not getting a pay check?

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media...ump-signs-multi-year-faa-reauthorization-bill

 

The difference is an authorization versus an appropriation.

Appropriations bills provide the discretionary funding available to agencies and programs that have already been authorized. In the case of mandatory spending, an authorization bill both authorizes and appropriates funding for a specific program without requiring a subsequent appropriations law.

Think of an approapriation as money in the bank, and authorization being the ability to write checks. Without an appropriation, there's no money to draw from.

So for FAA operations and Facilities and equipment, they have the authorization without a current appropriation. For FAA AIrport Improvement Plan funding, money comes out of the Airway trust fund, which is separate from this appropriation. As such, FAA airport inspectors and AIP grants (and the people who process them) are business as usual right now.

 

So kinda like I have an AUTHORIZATION to by myself a brand new Cirrus SR22 but lack the appropriations to make it happen...got it!

 

Or conversely, you could have appropriated the money to buy the Cirrus (Rich uncle died and willed you a suitcase full of money), but lack the authorization (from the wife) to write a check for it.

 

That is easy...then re-approrpriate the wife before the authorizations land in the account!

 

and to carry on the story for what's going now, basically both you and your wife refuse to sign the back of the inheritance check so that you may deposit it, because you want the plane and she refuses, meanwhile you stop paying the cable bill, the mortgage, and Timmy's college tuition...

 

Timmy was a lost cause anyway...

 

Ah, but see the wife (ie the House) controls the purse strings. The only thing you can do is refuse to sign the back of the check.

And you can't get a new wife for another two years!

 

We tried that but the same old tired wife shows back up on the doorstep anyway!

 

I believe, by law, that you lose 50% of the authorizations at that point.

 

Thanks!

 

Unless it was hidden as an earmark buried in another bill and goes unnoticed...like every other bill passed!

 

I think you meant appropriations, as half of the bank account will reappropriated by the judge to the ex, but yeah.