Summary

At just more than $8.8 billion, the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) fiscal year 1995 budget request represents a two-percent increase over the previous year's appropriation. This includes $2.3 billion for facilities and equipment; $4.6 billion for operations; $1.7 billion for the Airport Improvement Program; and $267 million for research, engineering, and development. About $6.6 billion will be charged to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund and the rest charged to the General Fund. At these levels, expenditures would exceed trust fund receipts from user fees that are estimated at under $6 billion for fiscal year 1995. The fiscal year 1995 budget would continue the trend of drawing down the trust fund balance. Against this financial backdrop, FAA faces major challenges. How FAA meets them will affect profoundly the nation's airports and airlines as well as the traveling public. This testimony focuses on air traffic control modernization, work force operations in a period of downsizing, the use of Airport Improvement Program money, and research and development for detecting explosives.