[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 209 (Tuesday, October 28, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64006-64007]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-25712]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration


Deadline for Notification of Intent To Use the Airport 
Improvement Program (AIP) Sponsor, Cargo, and Nonprimary Entitlement 
Funds for Fiscal Year 2009

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces February 
2, 2009, as the deadline for each airport sponsor to notify the FAA 
whether or not it will use its fiscal year 2009 entitlement funds 
available under Public Law No. 110-330 to accomplish Airport 
Improvement Program (AIP)-eligible projects that the sponsor previously 
identified through the Airports Capital Improvement Plan (ACIP) process 
during the preceding year. If a sponsor does not declare their 
intention regarding the use of fiscal year 2009 entitlement funds by 
February 2, 2009, FAA will be unable to take the necessary actions to 
designate these as ``protected'' carryover funds; these funds will not 
be carried over without a legislative enactment that provides an 
additional AIP authorization and an extension of the FAA's spending 
authority from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund beyond March 31, 2009.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Frank J. San Martin, Manager, 
Airports Financial Assistance Division, APP-500, on (202) 267-3831.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title 49 of the United States Code, section 47105(f), provides that 
the sponsor of each airport to which funds are apportioned shall notify 
the Secretary by such time and in a form as prescribed by the 
Secretary, of the sponsor's intent to apply for the funds apportioned 
to it (entitlements). This notice applies only to those airports that 
have had entitlement funds apportioned to them, except those nonprimary 
airports located in designated Block Grant States. Sponsors intending 
to apply for any of their available entitlement funds, including those 
unused from prior years, shall submit by February 2, 2009, a written 
indication to the designated Airports District Office (or Regional 
Office in regions without Airports District Offices) that they will 
advertise, bid, and submit an application prior to February 11, 2009, 
or by the date established by the designated Airport District or 
Regional Office.
    This notice is promulgated to expedite and prioritize the grant-
making process. In the past when there has been full-year funding for 
AIP, the FAA has established a deadline of May 1 for an airport sponsor 
to declare that it will defer use of its entitlement funding. 
Considering that Congress has authorized the AIP program only until 
March 31, 2009, i.e. into the middle of a fiscal year, and uncertainty 
about additional statutory action before the end of the fiscal year, 
the FAA is establishing February 2, 2009, as the deadline for each 
airport sponsor to notify the FAA whether or not it will use its fiscal 
year 2009 entitlement funds.
    The AIP grant program is operating under the requirements of Public 
Law 110-329, the ``Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and 
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009'', which is a continuing resolution 
through March 6, 2009, and Public Law 110-330, the ``Federal Aviation 
Administration Extension Act of 2008, Part II'', enacted on September 
30, 2008, which amends 49 U.S.C. 48103, to extend AIP for a six-month 
period beginning October 1, 2008 and ending on March 31, 2009. The 
FAA's expenditure authority from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund will 
expire on March 31, 2009, in the absence of an additional statutory 
extension. Therefore, to avoid the risk of not being able to carryover 
funds should an additional extension not be enacted,

[[Page 64007]]

and to allow at least three days for accounting processing time, AIP 
funds should be obligated in FAA's accounting records on or before 
March 3, 2009.
    Sponsors have three options available to them regarding AIP grants 
during this period. First, sponsors may elect to make an application 
for a grant based on entitlements currently available to them. Sponsors 
that elect to take such a grant must submit grant applications to the 
FAA no later than February 11, 2009, in order to meet the March 3, 2009 
obligation deadline. Second, sponsors may elect to wait until after the 
February 2, 2009 notification date for protection of carryover 
entitlements. However, if a sponsor does not declare their intention 
regarding the use of fiscal year 2009 entitlement funds by the February 
2, 2009 deadline, FAA will be unable to take the necessary actions to 
designate these as ``protected'' carryover funds, and these funds would 
not be carried over without a legislative enactment that provides 
additional AIP authorization for fiscal year 2009 and extends the FAA's 
spending authority from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund beyond March 
31, 2009. Third, sponsors may elect to declare their intention to 
carryover the entitlements prior to the February 2, 2009 deadline 
through sending an acceptable written notification of such intention by 
February 2, 2009. Unused carryover entitlements that have been deferred 
will be available in fiscal year 2010 as provided in current law. FAA 
will then issue discretionary grants from the deferred entitlement 
funds pursuant to the authority and limitations in section 471 17(f).
    If a statutory extension beyond March 31, 2009 of the AIP program 
and the FAA's authority to make expenditures from the Trust Fund is 
enacted, additional entitlement funds may be available to sponsors. In 
that case, airport sponsors who did not previously declare their 
intention to carryover the entitlements must provide a written 
indication to the designated Airports District Office (or Regional 
Office in regions without Airports District Offices) that they will 
either carryover or use their fiscal year 2009 entitlements by May 1, 
2009.

    Issued in Washington, DC on October 21, 2008.
Benito DeLeon,
Director, FAA Office of Airport Planning and Programming.
[FR Doc. E8-25712 Filed 10-27-08; 8:45 am]
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