On the runway: Senate effort to update aviation system

Last update: April 29, 2008 - 8:08 PM

The Senate is taking on what Sen. Jay Rockefeller calls "a national embarrassment," an antiquated air traffic control system that is making flying more unpleasant and possibly less safe.

Legislation being debated this week to modernize the nation's aviation system could provide immediate relief to passengers. It would set a three-hour limit on how long airliners may sit on a runway without allowing passengers to get off.

Rockefeller, D-W.Va., heads the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee. He cited predictions that none of the 1 billion people predicted to fly in 2015 will reach their destination on time if aggressive steps are not taken to upgrade air traffic control.

The House passed its version in September. It stalled in the Senate over disputes on how to pay for modernization efforts.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said a deal reached last week would provide an additional $800 million every year for the Aviation Trust Fund, partly by raising the tax on jet fuel used by noncommercial aircraft from 21.9 cents to 36 cents a gallon.

PANEL: NEW POLICY PROLONGS EPA REVIEWS

Congressional investigators said the Bush administration has changed Environmental Protection Agency reviews of chemicals in a way that will delay scientific assessments of their health risks and open the process to politicization.

Officials with the Government Accountability Office criticized a White House policy that began this month to allow the Office of Management and Budget and other agencies to offer secret input on assessments of long-term exposure to chemicals such as formaldehyde. This could prolong by months or years the review of certain chemicals.

EPA officials say it will make the process more accessible. But many agencies, and the contractors who do business with them, use some of the chemicals under review. And they could face legal liability if the EPA were to decide to regulate the chemicals.

NEWS SERVICES

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