Air Traffic Management System Performance Improvement Act of 1996

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: General Provisions

Title II: Federal Aviation Administration Streamlining

Programs

Title III: System to Fund Certain Federal Aviation

Administration Functions

Air Traffic Management System Performance Improvement Act of 1996 - Title I: General Provisions - Amends the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (the Act) to delineate the powers and duties of the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Secretary of Transportation with respect to the FAA.

(Sec. 104) Authorizes the Administrator to issue, rescind, and revise regulations as necessary to carry out the FAA functions. Prohibits the Administrator, without prior approval of the Secretary, from issuing a proposed or final regulation that is significant or is likely to result in the expenditure by State, local, and tribal governments in the aggregate, or by the private sector, of $50 million or more in any year. Excepts emergency regulations from such prohibition, but subjects them to rescission if the Secretary fails to ratify them. Requires the Administrator to review any unusually burdensome regulations, which would result in the annual expenditure by State, local, and tribal governments in the aggregate, or by the private sector, of $25 million or more (adjusted annually for inflation) in any year.

(Sec. 105) Authorizes the Administrator to utilize personnel of other Federal agencies.

(Sec. 107) Amends Federal transportation law to revise FAA budget provisions to require the Administrator, after the first fiscal year in which the FAA is funded entirely by user fees, to prepare a budget for the FAA for each fiscal year. Directs the Secretary to review such budget, recommending modifications to it to ensure consistency with the needs of the national transportation system.

(Sec. 110) Directs the Administrator to establish a select panel to review and report to the Congress regarding a limited innovative program to fund specific facilities and equipment projects, and to provide limited additional funding alternatives for airport capacity development.

(Sec. 112) Amends the Act to direct the Administrator to establish the Federal Aviation Management Advisory Council which shall: (1) provide advice and counsel to the Administrator on issues which affect or are affected by the Administrator's operations; (2) function as an oversight resource for management, policy, spending, and regulatory matters; (3) review the rule-making cost-benefit analysis process, recommend improvements, and ensure that the public interest is fully protected; and (4) review the process through which the FAA determines to use advisory circulars and service bulletins.

(Sec. 113) Amends Federal transportation law to require the Administrator, in order to protect the public health and welfare from aircraft engine emissions, to prescribe air pollutant emission standards for aircraft engines.

(Sec. 114) Directs the Secretary to conduct, and report to a specified congressional committee on, a study to: (1) compare fares paid for transportation on commercial air flights between certain nonhub and large hub airports; and (2) analyze the extent to which passenger service from nonhub airports is provided on regional commuter commercial air carriers or major air carriers, and whether there is competition among commercial carriers with respect to such service.

Title II: Federal Aviation Administration Streamlining Programs - Directs the Administrator to develop an innovative program for air traffic control modernization using an acquisition management system for FAA procurement of goods and services.

(Sec. 202) Requires the Administrator to terminate programs funded under the Facilities and Equipment account, and to consider the termination of substantial acquisitions, that fail to meet specified established project cost, performance, and schedule goals.

(Sec. 203) Directs the Administrator to develop an innovative personnel management system for the management, compensation, and advancement of FAA employees.

Title III: System to Fund Certain Federal Aviation Administration Functions - Directs the Administrator to submit to the Congress a performance-based fee system for various FAA services.

(Sec. 303) Directs the FAA to enter into an agreement with the Department of Defense (DOD) for reimbursement to the FAA of the net cost of air traffic control services provided to DOD.

(Sec. 304) Directs the FAA to submit to the Congress a proposed fee system for air traffic control services.

(Sec. 305) Provides for certain administrative procedures. Requires the Administrator to commission independent studies: (1) assessing the costs occasioned by FAA services to each segment of the aviation system; and (2) reviewing funding needs and assumptions for operations, capital spending, and airport infrastructure. Provides for congressional disapproval of proposed FAA fee systems.

(Sec. 306) Amends Federal transportation law to increase for FY 1997 and 1998 Airport and Airway Trust Fund spending caps for certain direct costs for air navigation facilities and joint air navigation services.

(Sec. 307) Requires the multiyear appropriation of funds (not less than three years) for Trust Fund activities.

(Sec. 308) Expresses the sense of the Senate that the Congress must make every effort to apply, in the face of certain congressionally mandated funding cuts, the unobligated $5 billion surplus contained in the Airport and Airway Trust Fund for use by the FAA.

Rural Air Service Survival Act - Authorizes the availability of a specified amount of user fees collected under this Act for each fiscal year for expenditure to carry out the essential air service program. Authorizes the Secretary to require an eligible public agency that controls a commercial service airport to provide for basic essential air service matching funds of up to ten percent for any payments it receives under this Act.

Transfers the essential air service program from the Secretary of Transportation to the FAA Administrator.