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AIA Releases Top Ten Issues for 2003

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 26- The Aerospace Industries Association's Board of Governors has identified the industry's ten most important issues for 2003. Topping the list for AIA is the implementation of recommendations issued by the Commission on the Future of the U. S. Aerospace Industry. Designed to ensure the leadership of the U.S. aerospace industry in the 21st century, the recommendations require swift implementation by Congress and the administration, according to John W. Douglass, AIA President and CEO. He said the Commission's recommendations and many of AIA's Top Ten issues dovetail, but that AIA's issue papers are more specific and in many cases carry the commission's recommendations several steps closer to implementation.

A top issue identified by both AIA's Board of Governors and the Commission is the development of legislative and policy changes to ensure the safety, security and profitability of the civil aviation industry. Key to this effort is immediate relief from taxes and unfunded mandates imposed on the airlines as a result of national security considerations. According to AIA, the health of the industry also requires the accelerated development of a more efficient air traffic management system to ensure a more secure air system and to save millions of hours in potential passenger and cargo delays.

Douglass said, "The effects of the downturn in airline activity since 9/11 have rippled through the aviation manufacturing base of the United States, resulting in lower deliveries of aircraft and related equipment. At the same time, the downturn has masked long-term system capacity problems that will re-emerge as the airlines return to long-term growth."

A number of defense and industrial base issues were also chosen as Top Ten issues. Among them, reforming the export control system, supporting initiatives for investment and consolidation in the aerospace industrial base, increased use of commercial procedures and practices throughout the government, supporting a sustained level of funding for defense and NASA modernization, and reducing the excess defense infrastructure.

Other issues of concern to the aerospace industry are:

• Developing a national plan for revitalization of the aerospace workforce,
• Revising federal tax laws to protect U.S. companies from a competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace,
• Reforming the "Percentage of Completion" rule that requires aerospace companies to pay a tax on profits before they are received,
• Increasing the federal research and experimentation (R&E) tax credit rate and making it permanent, and
• Promoting and supporting U.S. homeland defense and aviation security.

View AIA's Top Ten Issue papers.

P.A. Rel 2003-3

02.26.03

-AIA-

Contact: Matt Grimison, AIA
(703) 358-1076
matt.grimison@aia-aerospace.org