Sec. 1403. Future aviation infrastructure and financing study
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Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Transportation shall enter into an agreement with qualified organization to conduct a study and make recommendations on the actions needed to upgrade and restore the national aviation infrastructure system to its role as a premier system that meets the growing and shifting demands of the 21st century, including airport infrastructure needs and existing financial resources for commercial service airports.
In carrying out the study, the qualified organization shall convene and consult with a panel of national experts, including representatives of— nonhub airports; small hub airports; medium hub airports; large hub airports; airports with international service; non-primary airports; local elected officials; relevant labor organizations; passengers; air carriers; and the tourism industry. In carrying out the study, the qualified organization shall consider— the ability of airport infrastructure to meet current and projected passenger volumes; the available financial tools and resources for airports of different sizes; the current debt held by airports, and its impact on future construction and capacity needs; the impact of capacity constraints on passengers and ticket prices; the purchasing power of the passenger facility charge from the last increase in 2000 to the year of enactment of this Act; the impact to passengers and airports of indexing the passenger facility charge for inflation; how long airports are constrained with current passenger facility charge collections; the impact of passenger facility charges on promoting competition; the additional resources or options to fund terminal construction projects; the resources eligible for use toward noise reduction and emission reduction projects; the gap between the cost of projects eligible for the airport improvement program and the annual Federal funding provided; the impact of regulatory requirements on airport infrastructure financing needs; airline competition; airline ancillary fees and their impact on ticket pricing and taxable revenue; and the ability of airports to finance necessary safety, security, capacity, and environmental projects identified in capital improvement plans.
Not later than 15 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the qualified organization shall submit to the Secretary and the appropriate committees of Congress a report on its findings and recommendations. The Secretary is authorized to use such sums as are necessary to carry out the requirements of this section. In this section, the term qualified organization means an independent nonprofit organization that recommends solutions to public policy challenges through objective research and analysis.