Newhouse bill to save GCIA control tower

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a measure that would prohibit the Federal Aviation Administration from closing any air traffic control facilities at civilian airports where military traffic is a sizable portion of flights in and out.

According to Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Yakima, the measure to reauthorize the FAA would prevent the agency “from realigning or consolidating any facilities where military operations comprised 40 percent” of controlled traffic in 2015.

“The current 804 realignment or consolidation process for FAA facilities would have a serious impact on Grant County International Airport (GCIA) and Moses Lake, and this bipartisan FAA reauthorization legislation rightly amends that process,” Newhouse said in a news release.

“I am pleased that my military operations exemption will help preserve military readiness as well as important economic benefits for Grant County,” the representative added.

The FAA has been looking at relocating GCIA’s air traffic control capabilities to Spokane in order to save money. The move has been opposed by the Port of Moses Lake, which states that the nature of the air traffic at GCIA — training flights by the U.S. Air Force, as well as testing flights by Boeing and Mitsubishi — is irregular and frequent enough to need local air traffic control.

“The preservation of the radar facility at the Grant County International Airport is critical – that facility allows us to accommodate the diverse needs of our commercial and military users, and it allows us to continue to grow the economy in central Washington,” said Port Commission President David “Kent” Jones.

The bill, which was crafted by a joint House-Senate committee, will authorize the FAA for the next five years and is expected to pass both houses of Congress. The legislation currently authorizing the FAA expires at the end of September.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.