Do “Modernization” Budget Cuts Make Sense, After All?
Last issue I criticized the just-announced cut of nearly $400 million in the FAA’s capital investment budget for FY2005, noting that a modernization program funded by long-term revenue bonds wouldn’t be held hostage to the federal budget deficit. But I received considerable feedback suggesting that the actual program cuts (announced a few days later) were long overdue. Several insiders reminded me that only one issue before, I’d suggested that the costly LAAS program might be obsolete before it was even fielded, and was a worthy target for the axe it’s just received. Another suggested that NEXCOM, which was cut back by two-thirds but kept alive, should be cancelled because “it has no support either among [aviation] users or the rest of the international community.” Two insiders suggested that further budget pressures may finally push the FAA to implement the Inspector General’s recommendation not to install the very costly STARS upgrade in every facility, but substitute the far more co
