As Air Traffic Control Towers Close, Federal Aviation Administration Hiring ‘Community Planners’

March 21, 2013 
By Fred Lucas

(CNSNews.com) – As the Federal Aviation Administration is set to announce the temporary closure of 238 air traffic control towers because of the sequester, the agency is planning to hire “community planners” paid in excess of $100,000 – one at an airport slated to for a possible tower closure. 

Funding for the community planners is exempt from sequestration, while funding for air traffic control towers are not exempt from reduced funding, according to the FAA.

The FAA is hiring a community planner in Brisbane, Calif., at a salary of between $67,575 and $126,095. The agency advertised another community planner in Helena, Mont., to be paid between $57,080 and $106,511 per year. The Helena airport is on the FAA list for potential tower closures. The Brisbane airport is not.

The FAA is taking a $637 million budgetary hit from sequestration. Sequestration is a 2.3 percent reduction in spending growth for the entire federal government until the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. On Friday, the agency will announce what air traffic control towers will be closed. The closures will be at airports with fewer than 150,000 flight operations per year.

The sequester went into effect on March 1. The Brisbane, Calif., job was listed as being open to applications from March 5 to March 25. The Helena, Mont., job was listed as open to applications from Feb. 26 to March 11.

According to the FAA, this is not a question of spending priorities between control towers and community planners. That’s because the two are financed through separate funds within the FAA. Air traffic funding – which funds the towers – is a separate fund from the airport improvement program that funds community planners. Moreover, the airport improvement program is exempt from the sequester, according to the FAA.

The FAA declined to answer specific questions on the matter from CNSNews.com until it responds to questions from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on March 6 asking about several spending priorities in the sequestration, including FAA jobs.

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