Energy should be on fixing the Federal Aviation Administration, not corporate welfare - Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.)

By Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.)

Congress has a chance this year to pass meaningful and conservative reforms to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  These reforms will bring an end to the FAA’s decades-long failed attempts to modernize our Nation’s air traffic control system, and protect taxpayers from wasteful spending.  We should not jeopardize this unique opportunity for reforming our aviation system by adding miscellaneous corporate welfare tax provisions such as those being discussed in the Senate.

Congress just last year passed the PATH Act, which made some tax provisions permanent while extending others.  This legislation was born out of the need to end the annual business tax extenders which we believe has kept us from moving on to comprehensive business tax reform and allowed certain industries to continue to receive corporate welfare subsidies through the tax code.  Many of the green crony energy provisions were part of the PATH Act and the omnibus bill.  I opposed these provisions then and will continue to oppose the policies of this Administration to reward uneconomical forms of energy and punish the coal and fossil fuel industry which has created hundreds of thousands of jobs across this country and provided low energy costs for millions of consumers.

Modernizing our FAA allows the United States the opportunity to continue to lead the world in aviation.  Attaching unrelated energy tax provisions onto legislation not only has nothing to do with aviation or previous aviation laws but also jeopardizes this historic opportunity to make necessary and long-term reforms to the FAA.

Shuster is serving his second term as Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Original article can be found here:  http://thehill.com