The United States Senate passed a temporary funding extension for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through March 8.

According to the Washington Examiner, the temporary FAA reauthorization passed without any objection and allows the Senate extra time to work through issues from both sides of the aisle.?

The bill helped avoid missing the December 31 reauthorization deadline. Last week, the House of Representatives passed its version of the bill, and the Senate must reconcile their version with the House when it passes through the chamber.?

As for the full FAA reauthorization bill, disputes over pilot training requirements, pilot retirement age polices and perimeter rules for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport all must be resolved before the legislation can fully pass through Congress.

The original bill was slated to reauthorize the FAA for five years, starting on September 30, but scrutiny over a shortage of air traffic controllers, an alarming number of near-misses and disagreements over funding have resulted in two temporary extensions.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke openly last week about his frustration with the delays in passing the reauthorization legislation.

¡°We now find ourselves having to pass a second short-term FAA authorization in less than six months without having gotten the bill through committee,¡± Sen. Cruz told the Washington Examiner. ¡°This situation was entirely avoidable.¡±

Throughout the process, the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) has been in the trenches regarding the FAA reauthorization bill. Officials are pushing for a travel agency seat on the Consumer Protection Advisory Committee, which was designed as a streamlined system for fulfilling air consumer disclosure requirements during "offline" transactions.

The ASTA is also seeking to clarify an agency's obligations to issue a refund.

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