[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 13, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2266-2267]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-733]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Deadline for Submission of Application Under the Airport
Improvement Program (AIP) for Fiscal Year 1999 for Sponsor Entitlement
and Cargo Funds
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration, DOT.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces March 1,
1999, as the deadline for each airport sponsor to have on file with the
FAA an acceptable fiscal year 1999 grant application for funds
apportioned to it under the AIP.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mr. Stanley Lou, Manager, Programming Branch, Airports Financial
Assistance Division, Office of Airport Planning and Programming, APP-
520, on (202) 267-8809.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 47105(f) of Title 49, United States
Code, 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). Notification of the sponsor's
intent to apply during fiscal year 1999 for any of its entitlement
funds including those unused from prior years, shall be in the form of
a project application (SF 424) submitted to the cognizant FAA Airports
office no later than March 1, 1999.
This notice is promulgated to expedite and prioritize grants prior
to the March 30, 1999, AIP expiration date as established by Public Law
105-227 (the Omnibus Act). Absent an acceptable application by March 1,
FAA will defer an airport's entitlement funds until the next fiscal
year. Pursuant to the authority and limitations in section 47117(g),
FAA will issue discretionary grants in an aggregate amount not to
exceed the aggregate amount of deferred entitlement funds.
In prior fiscal years, FAA has had sufficient program flexibility
to permit sponsors to provide notice later than the deadline date, or
to use entitlement funds later in a fiscal year in spite of filing no
notice to that effect. In FY 1999, however, FAA must make all
discretionary grant awards prior to April 1, 1999, including
discretionary grants of entitlement funds that are available to, but
will not be used by, the airport sponsors to which they have been
apportioned. Airport sponsors that fail to notify FAA by the deadline
date that they intend to use all or a portion of their entitlement
funds in FY 1999 may have access to those funds in FY 1999 after March
31, only if legislation is enacted prior to October 1, 1999, to
authorize the AIP beyond March 31. This includes prior year entitlement
funds that remain available to an airport sponsor only through fiscal
year 1999. In all other cases, airport sponsors may request unused
entitlements after September 30, 1999.
The FAA views the receipt of this notice from the sponsors of
primary commercial service airports as particularly important this
fiscal year. The ability to use the contract authority associated with
unused entitlement funds on a discretionary basis during the current
truncated program will allow FAA to obligate additional critically
needed AIP funds by March 31. This abbreviated ``year-end conversion''
will result in more discretionary dollars for airport development. For
these reasons, the FAA will rely heavily upon the extent to which
responses to the required notice indicate the availability of unused
entitlement funds for
[[Page 2267]]
discretionary use. Inasmuch as the FAA will be able to obligate these
funds after March 31 as entitlements only with the enactment of follow-
on authorizing legislation, sponsors are advised to give careful
consideration to decisions related to the use of entitlement funds
during fiscal year 1999.
Issued in Washington, DC, January 4, 1999.
Stan Lou,
Manager, Programming Branch.
[FR Doc. 99-733 Filed 1-12-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-M
