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H.R. 4915 (111th): Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010
- Introduced:
- Mar 23, 2010 (111th Congress, 2009–2010)
- Sponsor:
- Rep. James Oberstar [D-MN8]
- Status:
- Died (Passed Senate with Changes)
The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.
Library of Congress Summary
The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.
12/18/2010--Passed Senate amended.
Section
1
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Makes technical amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), as amended by the Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010 (PACMBPRA), regarding the election to apply specified requirements in an eligible plan year with respect to the shortfall amortization base in minimum funding standards for a single-employer defined benefit pension plan.
Treats a plan as eligible for such an election only if:
(1) the plan sponsor is not a debtor in a case under bankruptcy law or similar federal or state law,
(2) there are no unpaid minimum required contributions with respect to the plan for purposes of the excise tax when minimum required contributions are not paid when due,
(3) there are no outstanding liens in favor of the plan for a person's failure to make required contributions, and
(4) the plan sponsor has not initiated a distress termination of the plan.
Section
2
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Amends the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA), as amended by PACMBPRA, with respect to the exemption from certain PPA requirements for and restrictions on the funding of multiple employer plans of eligible charities.
Redefines an eligible charity plan as one maintained by one or more employers with employees accruing benefits based on service for the plan year, where:
(1) such employees are employed in at least 20 states,
(2) more than 98% of them are employed by a tax-exempt charitable organization whose primary exempt purpose is to provide services with respect to children, and
(3) the plan sponsor elects to be treated as an eligible charity plan.
Applies this redefinition to plan years beginning after December 31, 2010, but allows a plan sponsor to elect to apply it to earlier plan years.
Section
3
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Amends the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 to extend through plan years beginning during the period October 1, 2008-December 31, 2011, certain funding-based limits on benefit accruals for single-employer plans with severe funding shortfalls.
Revises the adjusted funding target attainment percentage factor in such limits for that period.
Amends ERISA and the IRC with respect to the allowance of a one-time prohibited payment by a single-employer plan.
Declares that, in the case of payments the annuity starting date for which occurs on or before December 31, 2011, payments under a Social Security leveling option shall be treated as not in excess of the monthly amount paid under a single life annuity (plus an amount not in excess of a Social Security supplement).
Permits a plan sponsor to elect to apply such treatment to payments whose annuity starting date occurs before January 1, 2011.
Repeals related existing requirements as if they had never been enacted.
Section
4
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Amends ERISA and the IRC, as amended by PACMBPRA, to revise the threshold date, under rules for special relief from minimum funding standards, for the period during which a solvent multiemployer plan may treat, as an item separate from other experience losses, to be amortized over 30 years, the portion of any experience loss or gain attributable to net investment losses incurred in either or both of certain plan years.
Changes the identity of such plan years from the first two plan years ending after August 31, 2008, to the first two plan years ending after June 30, 2008.
House Republican Conference Summary
The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.
This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/2/hr4915.
Background
FAA Background: In the 110th and 111th Congresses, the House passed several short-term FAA extensions authorities which were signed into law. The most recent extension, H.R.4217 (P.L. 111-116) was passed in the House on December 8, 2009, by voice vote. Prior to that, H.R. 3607 (P.L. 111-69), passed by voice vote on September 23, 2009, and extended programs and FAA authority through December 31, 2009.
The FAA is an agency within the Department of Transportation that oversees and regulates the nation's aviation system. The Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF), created by the Airport and Airway Revenue Act of 1970, provides funding for the nation's aviation system through several aviation excise taxes. Funding currently comes from collections related to passenger tickets, air cargo excise taxes, passenger flight segments, and aviation fuels, among other sources. The current funding mechanisms for the FAA were set forth by the Vision 100-Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act, which became law in 2003. Vision 100 expired at the end of FY 2007, and the FAA has since been funded by a series of temporary authorizations. Both the House (H.R. 915) and the Senate (S. 1451) have introduced a long-term FAA extension. H.R. 915 passed the House on May 21, 2009, by a vote of 277-136. The Senate has yet to act on either S. 1451 or the House passed extension.
On March 17, 2010, the House passed H.R. 4853, an almost identical Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act, by voice vote. The underlying legislation is nearly identical to H.R. 4853, but alters the formula for calculating funding for the Airport Improvement Program. Under H.R. 4853, the annualized basis for FY 2010 funding for the program would have been reduced by 89/365 or 24 percent (representing the number of days the program was funded through extensions). H.R. 4915 would lower the reduction in the annualized funding basis to 11 percent.
HTF Background: On March 18, 2010, the president signed the HIRE Act (H.R. 2847), including the surface transportation extension through December 31, 2010. The modifications in H.R. 4915 would reconcile an agreement regarding funding formulas made between the Chairmen of the applicable House and Senate committees that could not have been made legislatively without altering the bill and requiring additional consideration in the House and Senate.
Summary
FAA Extension: H.R. 4915 extends certain authorities of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for approximately three months, from March 31, 2010, through July 4, 2010. The bill would extend the FAA's authority to spend money from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF), their authority to charge taxes, and their appropriated spending levels. Under current law, these authorities would expire on March 31, 2009.
The bill extends certain aviation-related taxes that are used to finance the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, including ticket taxes. Specifically, the bill would extend the domestic passenger ticket tax at its current level of 7.5 percent of ticket price, the domestic flight segment tax at its current level of $3.40 per passenger, and the domestic cargo tax at 6.25 percent of the cost of transporting property.
H.R. 4915 authorizes the appropriation of funds for the Airport Improvement Program for Fiscal Year 2010, and extends its program grant authority through July 4, 2010. Funding for the program would be calculated on an annualized basis as if the total amount for FY 2010 was $4 billion, and then reduced by 11 percent. Additionally, the bill authorizes funding for operations, as well as the Air Navigation Facilities and Equipment. Finally, the bill authorizes funding for FAA research, engineering, and development.
HTF Extension Modifications: the legislation contains provisions which modify the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) extension which passed the House as a provision of H.R. 2847, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE). Under the Senate-passed version of the HIRE Act, $932 million in funds from the Projects of National and Regional Significance (PNRS) program would have been distributed to only 29 states under pre-existing the SAFETEA-LU distribution formulas. The underlying legislation would adjust that provision to distribute the PNRS funds to every state through the federal highway aid formula.
Under the Senate passed version of the HIRE Act, funds earmarked for specific states would be disbursed using only six highway formula funding programs. H.R. 4915 would modify the distribution of HTF funds designated for states such that those funds are disbursed using 13 highway formula programs. The formula programs are:
- The Interstate maintenance program;
- The national highway system program;
- The highway bridge program;
- The surface transportation program;
- The highway safety improvement program;
- The congestion mitigation and air quality improvement program;
- Metropolitan planning programs;
- The equity bonus program;
- The Appalachian development highway system program;
- The recreational trails program;
- The safe routes to school program;
- The rail-highway grade crossing program.
- The coordinated border infrastructure program.
Cost
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not yet produced a cost estimate for this bill as of press time.
House Democratic Caucus Summary
The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.
So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.
We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.
The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:
Slip Laws
Slip laws refer to enacted bills and joint resolutions in their original form as enacted by Congress, that is, before other laws amend them. Slip laws are cited as “Public Law XXX-YYY”, where XXX is the number of the Congress in which the bill or resolution was introduced.
- Public Law 110-458
United States Code
The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)
- Title 29: LABOR
- Chapter 18: EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY PROGRAM
- Subchapter I: PROTECTION OF EMPLOYEE BENEFIT RIGHTS
- Subtitle B: Regulatory Provisions
- Part 3: funding
- Section 1083: Minimum funding standards for single-employer defined benefit pension plans
Statutes at Large
The United States Statutes at Large is the compilation of all laws enacted by Congress.
- 122 Stat. 5118