§45303 Administrative Provisions

Summary

Makes the FAA Administrator the one who receives all fees for FAA services and lets the Administrator refund fees paid by mistake. Most fees go into a separate Treasury account for FAA activities, except insurance premiums placed in the Aviation Insurance Revolving Fund and interest on that Fund, and except amounts required to be credited to the general fund on September 30, 1996. Money in that account can be spent right away for congressionally authorized FAA purposes and stays available until used. Each year, on the same day the President sends the budget to Congress, the Administrator must report to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure with lists of last year’s fee collections, what those fees paid for, budget plans (including future years), any plan for surplus fees, and other requested information. The FAA must build a cost accounting system that shows investments, operating and overhead costs, revenues, and other financial data. The FAA must also make rules so any air carrier required to collect a fee can charge the party being billed one uniform extra amount to cover reasonable collection costs, net of any interest the carrier earns between collection and payment. Within 6 months after the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 was enacted, the Administrator and the Air Traffic Organization COO had to use the most recent full fiscal year of data to calculate, for each user segment, total air traffic services costs and total revenues. The DOT Inspector General then has 3 months to check the model used. If the model is not valid, the Inspector General must give fixes, the FAA must redo the calculations, and the Inspector General has another 3 months to review. After the model is validated, the FAA must send the results to specified House and Senate committees within 60 days and publish the report within 60 days after submission. Starting March 31, 2019, and every two years for 14 years, the FAA must repeat these calculations for the most recent full fiscal year, send the results to the same committees within 15 days, and publish them within 60 days. Segments cover 15 types of air traffic users (including passenger and all-cargo Part 121 carriers; Part 125 and Part 135 piston and turbine operators; foreign passenger and cargo carriers; various Part 91 operators, including subpart K; Parts 133, 136, 137 operators; qualifying public aircraft; and operators that neither take off from nor land in the United States), and the Secretary may add more segments as data allow. Air traffic services — services that monitor, direct, control, and guide aircraft safely (like communications, navigation, surveillance, and aeronautical information) provided by or contracted for by the FAA. Air traffic services user — any person or entity using those FAA-provided air traffic services in U.S. airspace or international airspace delegated to the United States.