March 17, 2017 // The President’s 2018 Budget Proposal

Statement from NATCA President Paul Rinaldi:

NATCA will carefully evaluate the President’s proposal. For us to consider supporting any reform proposal, it must meet our core principles:

1. Protecting the men and women who ensure the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS) in their employment relationship, including their rights and benefits;
2. Ensuring that safety and efficiency remain the top priorities;
3. Providing a stable, predictable funding stream that adequately supports air traffic control services, staffing, hiring and training, long-term modernization, preventative maintenance, and ongoing modernization of the physical infrastructure; and
4. Ensuring continued service to all segments of our nation’s diverse aviation community.

NATCA opposes operating the NAS based on a profit motive. We also oppose any proposal that would maintain the unstable, unpredictable status quo.

As the Administration and Congress consider air traffic control reform and work to provide long-term reauthorization for the FAA, and therefore address the problem of stop-and-go funding, it is important that all stakeholders within the NAS collaborate to ensure that the United States remains the world leader in aviation. We are encouraged that a discussion on the future of aviation and the NAS is a national priority.

NATCA will continue to seek to be part of the solution to the problems caused by an unstable, unpredictable funding stream. We will continue to ensure the safety of the NAS and protect the men and women who safeguard it, both today and in the future.

On background: NATCA supported the Aviation Innovation, Reform & Reauthorization (AIRR) Act of 2016, because it met these core principles.