Sen­a­tors see must-pass FAA bill as last chance for lame duck pri­or­i­ties

Sen­a­tors are hop­ing their pri­or­i­ties can hitch a ride on a bill reau­tho­riz­ing the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion, one of the last must-pass pieces of leg­is­la­tion of the cur­rent Con­gress.
The Sen­ate will take its first pro­ce­dur­al vote on the reau­tho­riza­tion Wednes­day, days before the agency’s author­i­ty expires on May 10.
Con­gres­sion­al lead­ers in the House and Sen­ate announced a bipar­ti­san deal on the bill Mon­day, paving the way for its pas­sage after three short-term exten­sions. But the leg­is­la­tion will face oppo­si­tion from sen­a­tors on the los­ing side of its most con­tro­ver­sial pro­vi­sion, as well as demands from oth­er mem­bers who want to see unre­lat­ed mea­sures added before it’s sent over to the House.
Com­mit­tee nego­tia­tors in both cham­bers had to nav­i­gate a series of land mines in craft­ing the leg­is­la­tion, among them pilot train­ing require­ments that held up the bill in the Sen­ate for months. Mean­while, they ulti­mate­ly decid­ed to allow five new round-trip flights at Rea­gan Nation­al Air­port, despite protests from Wash­ing­ton, D.C.-area law­mak­ers who say the change will cause fur­ther delays at one of the busiest trav­el hubs in …