Aviation leaders stressed the urgent need to step up modernization of the nation’s ATC system, calling it unsustainable today during a hearing before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee’s aviation subcommittee. But stakeholders and lawmakers alike reemphasized the need to avoid contentious debates around proposals such as privatization, which has been touted recently in some circles in Washington.

With the backdrop of recent fatal accidents that have claimed the lives of dozens of people, the aviation subcommittee delved into the shortfalls of the system and the slow progress in updating it.

Aviation subcommittee chairman Troy Nehls (R-Texas) pointed to recent Government Accountability Office findings data that some 37% of the FAA’s ATC systems were unsustainable and another 39% potentially unsustainable. The aviation community has been “ringing the alarm bell for decades, for decades on the need for ATC modernization,” he said. “While efforts have been made to address this deep rooted. Since the 90s, it's clear they have fallen short. I say that not to keep blame, but to make clear. That we're not much closer to a solution than we were in 1995.”

While Nehls also added, “We need to rewrite the previous playbook and begin digging out of the hole that we found ourselves in,” he said all aviation stakeholders must coalesce around a common goal.

T&I chairman Sam Graves (R-Missouri) said Congress must build on provisions in the FAA reauthorization bill and take a hard look at how the FAA invests in and modernizes the ATC system. Graves further noted he was pleased that industry stakeholders recently signaled support for a consensus-driven approach.

“We simply cannot allow past issues that divided Congress and industry stakeholders to distract us from getting something done. We must work together, and I fully intend to do just that,” Grave said.

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Washington) was more pointed about privatization. “The FAA is the aviation expert and an airspace regulator that exists to protect the flying public, not solely to serve at the whims of a private industry. We must reject any attempts to privatize air traffic control systems. We must focus on policies that actually strengthen our air traffic control system and have broad support among industry and labor.”

These sentiments were echoed by many of the panelists of today’s hearing. Airlines for America president and CEO Nicholas Calio said, “We have a historic opportunity. We need to change the system,” and cited “woefully obsolescent, unreliable, and inefficient” systems.  “It's quite a list.”

Congress made strides with the enactment of the FAA reauthorization bill last year, but Calio said, “We all need to act with urgency. We've talked and talked...and very little has changed, at least not much for the better. We're past the inflection point now.”

But in addressing these issues, “It's critical that we put the debates of the past and the inherent political inertia behind us to try to actually all join together to get something done. We want action, not political debate.”

General Aviation Manufacturers Association president and CEO Pete Bunce further reiterated many of the key points the industry agreed upon to help boost the system, including an infusion of emergency funding, noting that requests last year would only cover about one-quarter of facilities' needs. 

Bunce added that the procurement process needs to be fixed, and existing facilities need to be evaluated.

“We need to all work together to be able to come up with a plan, and right now the FAA is somewhat paralyzed.” Also, there needs to be continuity to shield the FAA from potential government shutdowns.