Post by TCU 2U2 on Mar 4, 2013 8:13:37 GMT -5
TO: All NASAO MEMBERS
FROM: Henry Ogrodzinski
DATE: Tuesday, February 26, 2013
SUBJECT: Sequestration at FAA
Good morning (afternoon), ladies and gentlemen,
I have just returned from a meeting in the famous round-room at FAA HQ where the mood was serious, maybe even somber. NASAO had a seat at the roundtable with most of the
other aviation organizations representing U.S. airports, general aviation, airlines, cargo haulers, the military and international entities. We spent about an hour and a half with
Deputy U.S. DOT Secretary John Porcari, the head of FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) David Grizzle, and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.
They were supported by staff including several ATO Vice Presidents. Although I’d seen some e-mails early this
morning indicating that Members of Congress doubted the seriousness of sequestration…this open, serious and frank discussion demonstrated to me that FAA’s leadership as well as the U.S. DOT leadership have carefully evaluated the sequestration law, the obligations it imposes and the effect it will have on their agencies as well as all Americans.
Secretary Porcari began by saying that this is “an unprecedented situation for us….it requires across the board, indiscriminate permanent budget reductions”. He pointed out that federal agencies “don’t have the luxury” of picking and choosing what gets cut and what doesn’t. He referred to sequestration as, “a glide path down to the new normal” and that all of the FAA decisions were made to “minimize the impact on the largest number of travelers”.
ATO COO Grizzle noted that FAA has already imposed a “hiring freeze” and implemented cuts in, “overtime, travel, training and supplies”. He reiterated that FAA does not have the ability, under the sequestration law, to “cross-subsidize” certain operations or
departments. In addition to eliminating the midnight shifts at about 60 towers and shutting down all towers with fewer than 10,000 commercial operations or 150,000 total operations
(the lists were in yesterday’sNASAO Briefs), FAA is requiring all employees to take one day of unpaid leave during each pay period (resulting in a salary reduction of 10%). FAA is also
cutting back on all “modernization efforts”, including NextGen.
FAA needs to focus on these furloughs because, as Grizzle said, “Sixty percent of our budget is in operations, seventy percent of that is in salaries and seventy percent of that number is
in the field”.
No groups of employees are exempted (with the exception, under the law, of AIP and AIP funded FAA airport department employees). Grizzle also aid, “our highest priority is to maintain the current level of safety”. As we predicted in yesterday’s NASAO Briefs, because of notification requirements, shutdowns and furloughs will not take place until the first week of April.
In addition to the above cuts, ATO is eliminating “restoration funds” for all of its equipment and facilities except for “power, voice and navaids restoration”…and even under those
circumstances, not all navaids systems will be restored. For instance, once a VOR goes down, if it is not in the “minimum operations network”, it will stay down. It will not be
replaced or repaired. The same goes for some radars.
Noting that the sequester law covers 10 years, Administrator Huerta stated, “this is a permanent reduction in our budget”. Porcari echoed, saying, “These are permanent and enduring cuts”. At this time, we expect FAA’s 2014 budget to be reduced even further.
I wish I had better news for you, NASAO’s members. But I think that it’s better to share with you the precise language of the meeting and the sense of the grim mood. As we
reported in yesterday’s newsletter, it is highly unlikely that congress will do anything about sequestration before it kicks-in on March 1.
As you know, we also have two more major financial hurdles in the very near future. Our FAA Continuing Resolution (CR) and the one that which keeps the entire federal government
operating expire on March 27. No one in the round-room this morning wanted to speculate on what may or may not happen with the CR. Then, later this spring, congress and the
White House will have to deal with the debt limit…again.
If I can answer any questions or provide and further information, please don’t hesitate to
call or e-mail me, any time.
Best wishes, always,
Henry
Henry M. Ogrodzinski
President and CEO
National Association of State Aviation Officials
Washington National Airport
Hangar 7, Suite 218
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 703-417-1880
Fax: 703-417-1885
henryo@nasao.org
www.nasao.org
FROM: Henry Ogrodzinski
DATE: Tuesday, February 26, 2013
SUBJECT: Sequestration at FAA
Good morning (afternoon), ladies and gentlemen,
I have just returned from a meeting in the famous round-room at FAA HQ where the mood was serious, maybe even somber. NASAO had a seat at the roundtable with most of the
other aviation organizations representing U.S. airports, general aviation, airlines, cargo haulers, the military and international entities. We spent about an hour and a half with
Deputy U.S. DOT Secretary John Porcari, the head of FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) David Grizzle, and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.
They were supported by staff including several ATO Vice Presidents. Although I’d seen some e-mails early this
morning indicating that Members of Congress doubted the seriousness of sequestration…this open, serious and frank discussion demonstrated to me that FAA’s leadership as well as the U.S. DOT leadership have carefully evaluated the sequestration law, the obligations it imposes and the effect it will have on their agencies as well as all Americans.
Secretary Porcari began by saying that this is “an unprecedented situation for us….it requires across the board, indiscriminate permanent budget reductions”. He pointed out that federal agencies “don’t have the luxury” of picking and choosing what gets cut and what doesn’t. He referred to sequestration as, “a glide path down to the new normal” and that all of the FAA decisions were made to “minimize the impact on the largest number of travelers”.
ATO COO Grizzle noted that FAA has already imposed a “hiring freeze” and implemented cuts in, “overtime, travel, training and supplies”. He reiterated that FAA does not have the ability, under the sequestration law, to “cross-subsidize” certain operations or
departments. In addition to eliminating the midnight shifts at about 60 towers and shutting down all towers with fewer than 10,000 commercial operations or 150,000 total operations
(the lists were in yesterday’sNASAO Briefs), FAA is requiring all employees to take one day of unpaid leave during each pay period (resulting in a salary reduction of 10%). FAA is also
cutting back on all “modernization efforts”, including NextGen.
FAA needs to focus on these furloughs because, as Grizzle said, “Sixty percent of our budget is in operations, seventy percent of that is in salaries and seventy percent of that number is
in the field”.
No groups of employees are exempted (with the exception, under the law, of AIP and AIP funded FAA airport department employees). Grizzle also aid, “our highest priority is to maintain the current level of safety”. As we predicted in yesterday’s NASAO Briefs, because of notification requirements, shutdowns and furloughs will not take place until the first week of April.
In addition to the above cuts, ATO is eliminating “restoration funds” for all of its equipment and facilities except for “power, voice and navaids restoration”…and even under those
circumstances, not all navaids systems will be restored. For instance, once a VOR goes down, if it is not in the “minimum operations network”, it will stay down. It will not be
replaced or repaired. The same goes for some radars.
Noting that the sequester law covers 10 years, Administrator Huerta stated, “this is a permanent reduction in our budget”. Porcari echoed, saying, “These are permanent and enduring cuts”. At this time, we expect FAA’s 2014 budget to be reduced even further.
I wish I had better news for you, NASAO’s members. But I think that it’s better to share with you the precise language of the meeting and the sense of the grim mood. As we
reported in yesterday’s newsletter, it is highly unlikely that congress will do anything about sequestration before it kicks-in on March 1.
As you know, we also have two more major financial hurdles in the very near future. Our FAA Continuing Resolution (CR) and the one that which keeps the entire federal government
operating expire on March 27. No one in the round-room this morning wanted to speculate on what may or may not happen with the CR. Then, later this spring, congress and the
White House will have to deal with the debt limit…again.
If I can answer any questions or provide and further information, please don’t hesitate to
call or e-mail me, any time.
Best wishes, always,
Henry
Henry M. Ogrodzinski
President and CEO
National Association of State Aviation Officials
Washington National Airport
Hangar 7, Suite 218
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 703-417-1880
Fax: 703-417-1885
henryo@nasao.org
www.nasao.org