Scathing Editorial in Today's Wash Post....

[saxman]

...and the FAA might just be the biggest waste of transportation dollars since the days of the robber baron railroad tycoons that scammed and schemed their way to ultra riches at the expense of the common people by enriching themselves @ the public trough in the name of the public good!

On what basis do you make that statement?

What he meant to say was that the FAA has its own set of problems that need to be fixed. Past practice over the years have shown they've been more interested in the airlines interest instead of promoting safety. For years, the NTSB and unions have made recommendations on crew rest requirements and fatigue issues that need to be changed. Looks like something might actually change this year, but that is due to Congress forcing them too. I've also seen the FAA go after people for other rather "silly" things. At the airlines, we know the FAA mission statement, "We're not happy until you're not happy."

I could go on, but this is a high speed rail thread.

 

[jis]

What he meant to say was that the FAA has its own set of problems that need to be fixed. Past practice over the years have shown they've been more interested in the airlines interest instead of promoting safety. For years, the NTSB and unions have made recommendations on crew rest requirements and fatigue issues that need to be changed. Looks like something might actually change this year, but that is due to Congress forcing them too. I've also seen the FAA go after people for other rather "silly" things. At the airlines, we know the FAA mission statement, "We're not happy until you're not happy."

Do you really believe that those few acknowledged problems makes FAA one of the biggest wastes of transportation dollar as alluded to by the OP? BTW, AFAICT the money involved from general funds is something in the vicinity of $3 Billion out of something like $15 Billion that the FAA spends in a typical year.

In case of Amtrak again AFAICT it is about $1 Billion (a bit more actually) out of a bit more than $3 Billion, just to give a sense of the ballpark that we are talking about.

I have difficulty making an argument that either the $3 Billion for FAA or the $1+ Billion for Amtrak is a waste of transportation dollars by any stretch of my imagination. But of course opinions may vary.

Of course I am happy to be corrected on the specific dollar amounts since I just picked those up by a quick scan of the reported accounts of the two outfits from the previous year.

 

[AlanB]

Last year IIRC Jishnu, the FAA got just over $950 Million of its funds from general revenue. The rest was all paid for by the user. I'm not sure if the FAA budget also includes the TSA or not. In 2007, they got around $1.3 Billion I believe.

 

[saxman]

What he meant to say was that the FAA has its own set of problems that need to be fixed. Past practice over the years have shown they've been more interested in the airlines interest instead of promoting safety. For years, the NTSB and unions have made recommendations on crew rest requirements and fatigue issues that need to be changed. Looks like something might actually change this year, but that is due to Congress forcing them too. I've also seen the FAA go after people for other rather "silly" things. At the airlines, we know the FAA mission statement, "We're not happy until you're not happy."

Do you really believe that those few acknowledged problems makes FAA one of the biggest wastes of transportation dollar as alluded to by the OP? BTW, AFAICT the money involved from general funds is something in the vicinity of $3 Billion out of something like $15 Billion that the FAA spends in a typical year.

In case of Amtrak again AFAICT it is about $1 Billion (a bit more actually) out of a bit more than $3 Billion, just to give a sense of the ballpark that we are talking about.

I have difficulty making an argument that either the $3 Billion for FAA or the $1+ Billion for Amtrak is a waste of transportation dollars by any stretch of my imagination. But of course opinions may vary.

Of course I am happy to be corrected on the specific dollar amounts since I just picked those up by a quick scan of the reported accounts of the two outfits from the previous year.

No I never said the FAA was a big waste of money. I was simply referring to someone else post that said that. I was just pointing out a few problems. I know that we need the FAA, just as we need the FRA and FTA...

 

[jis]

Last year IIRC Jishnu, the FAA got just over $950 Million of its funds from general revenue. The rest was all paid for by the user. I'm not sure if the FAA budget also includes the TSA or not. In 2007, they got around $1.3 Billion I believe.

I was looking at the total FAA budget. It turns out that the actual number is 19% from General Funds, which is slated to go up to 25% by 2011 in order to fund NextGen systems. So that is around $3 billion in the budget request this year of the roughly (slightly under) $15 billion total. Last year also it got about 19% of about $14 billion from General funds. What they majorly slashed last year was airport grants in aid, but those are mostly funded out of AATF.