FAA funding issue stalls T.F. Green project

(Updated, Aug. 4 )
WARWICK – Rhode Island’s six general-aviation airports have been left waiting indefinitely on federal grants and a record of decision for the runway extension at T.F. Green Airport by the Federal Aviation Administration’s current lack of funding, the head of the R.I. Airport Corporation said.

Nevertheless, passengers at local airports will not be affected, RIAC President and CEO Kevin Dillon said.

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Air traffic control personnel are still working for pay, but 4,000 FAA administrative employees were furloughed July 23, when the most recent extension of the FAA’s funding expired. Congress went on recess Aug. 2 without extending the agency’s funding and is not expected to address the issue again until after Labor Day on Sept. 5.

Locally, the FAA staff members in the Burlington, Mass., regional office who process grant requests from Rhode Island airports have been furloughed.

The grants are paid for by federal taxes on airline tickets and can provide millions of dollars for everything from new equipment to runway resurfacing, Dillon said.

Because the federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30, “it’s highly unlikely that those grants will be able to be processed for this fiscal year” even if Congress ends the FAA shutdown in early September, Dillon said.

Although airports typically receive these grants in the spring, they have been continually delayed by congressional debates over the current fiscal year’s budget. Dillon said there is no guarantee that the grant money that was supposed to be sent out this year will be rolled over into next year’s grants.

T.F. Green is also waiting on a record of decision from the FAA, the next step of approval toward extending the airport’s main runway 1,530 feet.

The FAA released an environmental-impact statement on the project in June, and the airport was hoping to receive the record of decision in late August and to begin purchasing the land for the runway extension this fall, Dillon said.

“This is a process that we’ve been waiting for the FAA to complete over the past decade and a half,” Dillon said. “It’s not going to be the end of the world to delay it by another six weeks, although we’re very anxious to get it.”

If Congress ends the FAA’s partial shutdown in September, the general public will continue to be unaffected, Dillon said. But an extended fight could impact the passenger experience if construction and repair projects are unable to move forward, he said.