US House panel sets vote on paying air traffic controllers during shutdowns

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee on Thursday plans to vote on legislation aiming to prevent aviation disruptions during government shutdowns by ensuring air traffic controllers and other key workers are paid.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Tuesday it also plans to vote on legislation this week that would require the Federal Aviation Administration to approve supersonic jet transport by April 2027.

In June, President

Donald Trump directed the FAA to lift a ban on supersonic air transport over land. The ban was imposed in 1973 due to property damage and hearing loss caused by sonic booms.

Since then, environmentalists have also criticized supersonic aircraft for burning more fuel per passenger than comparable subsonic planes, while supporters say it could cut flight times from New York to Los Angeles to under four hours.

Major airlines have backed the air traffic control pay legislation, noting last month that the 43-day U.S. government shutdown and government-imposed flight cuts disrupted 6 million passengers and 50,000 flights because of rising air traffic controller absences. The FAA, citing aviation safety concerns, imposed unprecedented flight cuts at 40 major U.S. airports on November 7 that led to 7,100 flight cancellations and impacted 2.3 million passengers.

Lawmakers have pressed the FAA to disclose more data on what led to the flight cuts and the FAA has sent letters of investigation to major airlines who appear not to have abided by the required flight cuts.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford in a letter to Congress Tuesday defended the decision to require flight cuts saying "data began to show a potential safety risk at certain high impact airports." He added he was "confident that decreasing  operations during an uncertain and stressful time was the right decision."

The committee is also voting on legislation to approve the move of the FBI's headquarters to a nearby building in Washington, costing more than $1 billion. Last month, the state of Maryland sued the Trump administration over its decision to scrap a Biden-era plan to construct new FBI headquarters just outside of Washington.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)