19. Department of Transportation · Notable · Needs Congress

Allow the ATO to issue long-term revenue bonds

Not started

Printed page 634 19. Department of Transportation

“Allow the ATO to issue long-term revenue bonds for major projects.”

What has happened

Feb 3, 2026 Not started
No bill in the 119th Congress would give the Air Traffic Organization bonding authority, and no executive action could: the ATO is an FAA line of business funded by appropriations and the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. Congress instead financed the modernization this ask would bond against with a $12.5 billion direct appropriation (P.L. 119-21 sec. 40003) and barred any funds from being used to plan, design or implement separation of the ATO's functions (P.L. 119-75 sec. 119G), which is the precondition for an ATO with its own balance sheet.
- Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (P.L. 119-75) sec. 119G - no funds to plan, design or implement separation of FAA air traffic organization functions
  Primary Congress Feb 3, 2026
- One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21) sec. 40003 - $12.5 billion appropriation for air traffic control modernization
  Primary Congress Jul 4, 2025

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Covered by the Chapter 19 cluster negative search for the ATO items (#1740, #1741, #1742, #1744): no Corpus bill title contains a revenue-bond or ATO-financing measure, and the Federal Register carries nothing on ATO financing.

Action: create
Object: ATO bonding authority
ID: 1742