The end of the fiscal year for the federal government is Sept. 30, and with that comes two major deadlines important for the ag aviation industry. Both the Farm Bill and FAA reauthorization need to be passed before the end of the fiscal year. If not passed, at a minimum both will be extended, but that could push responsibility for them to the next Congress, where party control and leadership changes could make both bills looks very different.

FAA Reauthorization

The last full FAA Reauthorization was passed in 2012, and the agency has been operating under multiple extensions since Sept. 30, 2015.

After House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster removed his provision to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system, the House passed a six-year FAA reauthorization bill in April 2018. The Senate has been much slower to pass a reauthorization bill due to a busy legislative schedule and controversy over non-aviation related amendments. Members of the House and Senate met last week in a “pre-conference” to hammer out differences in both bills while the Senate works on it’s amendment process.

The most important issue NAAA is working on during this process is preserving marking requirements for towers in rural areas between 50 and 200 vertical feet and an above-ground base up to 10 feet in diameter. In 2016, NAAA was successful in having Congress enact a law requiring the marking and logging of such towers into a database. The wireless communications industry came out in-force against these marking requirements.

The House-passed bill weakens tower marking requirements by allowing communication towers that meet the 2016 requirements to be marked or placed into a database, but they would not be required to do both. MET towers would still be required to be both marked and put in a database. NAAA is not satisfied with this compromise and is attempting to have Congress modify this approach so that non-MET towers constructed before the regulation goes into effect will have a choice to either mark or log into a database; however, all newly constructed towers should be both marked and put into a database. NAAA believes this addresses one of the tower industry’s biggest arguments of the cost and safety challenges marking existing towers.  All future towers could be properly marked before the tower is erected to address these concerns.

NAAA is working with members of the House and Senate to make sure they know the weakening of tower marking requirements puts the safety of ag aviators at risk. Additionally, the number of communication towers in the U.S. is growing. In 2000 there were 60,000 towers for wireless communication in the U.S. Today there are 150,000, and by 2025, 200,000 towers are expected.

Also, the NTSB is in the process of potentially revising a safety alert by recommending all MET towers be properly marked to include recommending all towers, both MET and communication, be marked if they have the same visual characteristics and size dimensions (under 200 feet, narrow circumference.

Chairman Shuster is retiring at the end of this Congress, so the House Transportation Committee with definitely have a new chairman in January 2019. Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), a strong champion for general aviation, is a leading contender for the gavel, along with Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA). If party control of the House changes, Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (R-WA) is expected to be the new Chairman. 

2018 Farm Bill

While, both the House and Senate have passed their respective Farm Bills, they contain some significant differences. For ag aviators, the most importance differences are the regulatory relief provisions included in the House bill, such as:

• A fix for the duplicative National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit by eliminating its requirements for pesticides registered and already tested for water safety under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
• Much needed improvements to endangered species consultation and the pesticide registration process under FIFRA.
• Language on cooperative federalism advancing states as coregulators of pesticides along with the EPA, but prohibiting local or county governments from advancing pesticide rules, such as Lincoln County, Oregon’s efforts last year banning aerial application of herbicides to forestry.

Going into the conference, it is expected the biggest challenge will be reconciling the House’s plan to impose work requirements on food stamp recipients. The Senate was careful to avoid the food stamp issue, because a Senate Farm bill needs 60 votes, requiring bi-partisan support.  Other differences in the bills include farm subsidy caps and conservation initiatives. There were no objections by any members of the House Agriculture Committee to any of regulatory relief provisions when it was passed out of committee.

Yesterday, the House and Senate held its first public conference committee hearing and there were several positive comments from Senators on regulatory relief. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) commended the House for passing FIFRA reform and fixing the duplicative NPDES requirements. Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), who last month sat down with ag aviators in his state, said “We have the opportunity to pass commonsense, bipartisan provisions to provide meaningful regulatory relief to folks like agricultural aviators.”