FAA's new technology budget also set back

The rights of passengers faced with lengthy ground delays would have been strengthened, and the FAA’s plan to move ahead with a new generation of air traffic control technology would have been cleared if the U.S. Senate had passed the Aviation Investment and Modernization Act last week – but that didn’t happen. Instead, the bill got bogged down by political disputes between Senate Republicans and Democrats, and action on those issues now might have to wait until next year. The bill would have required airlines to come up with contingency plans -- approved by the Transportation Department – to provide passengers with food, water and other necessities when a flight sits on the ground for long periods; without such a plan, passengers would have the right to deplane after three hours. The bill also would have provided extra funding for the FAA to move ahead with its NextGen satellite-based navigation system, considered critical to keeping the traffic moving in today’s congested skies. But Republicans didn’t like some other provisions Democrats had attached to the legislation, and the bill failed to get the 60-vote majority it needed for approval.