This was a vote on tabling (killing) an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would have reduced the proportion that the federal government paid for airport safety and efficiency improvements (under the Airport Improvement Program) from 95% to 75%. Under this program, the federal government was paying for 95% of these improvements, while state and local governments paid for the remaining 5%. This amendment was offered to legislation authorizing annual funding for the Federal Aviation Administration. (The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has regulatory authority over all civil aviation in the United States.)

Coburn urged support for his amendment: “…The Airport Improvement Program [AIP] is a needed program but what we do regularly in the Airport Improvement Program is we are incentivizing the expenditure of moneys in a way that does not recognize the priorities of this country. The way we do that is we have a cost sharing in which the Federal Government pays for 95 percent of all these programs….All this amendment does is it says if you are going to qualify for the AIP for airport improvement, that over the next 3 years we would take that from 95 percent down to 75 percent…”

No senators spoke in opposition to the amendment. Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-WV) press office, however, denounced the amendment in a press release as an attempt “to cut off small airports by shifting more of the costs for safety and other projects onto already strapped local governments.”

The Senate tabled (killed) this amendment by a vote of 59-39. Voting “yea” were 50 Democrats and 9 Republicans. 38 Republicans and 2 Democrats voted “nay.” As a result, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have reduced the proportion that the federal government paid for airport safety and efficiency improvements (under the Airport Improvement Program) from 95% to 75%.