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USA TODAY 7:46 p.m. EST February 11, 2016 WASHINGTON – A House committee approved landmark legislation Thursday to shift air-traffic control from the Federal Aviation Administration to a not-for-profit corporation, in an effort to provide more stable funding and avoid congressional politics. After more than eight hours of voting on amendments, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the bill on a 32-26 vote. The bill now goes to the full House and must still be considered by the Senate. “The FAA’s failure to modernize the system has been well documented,” said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., the committee chairman who wrote the bill. “With a modern system, we’ll see more effective use of the airspace, more direct routes, increased capacities, shorter flight times, reduced delays and cancellations, and reduced pollution and noise.” The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, proposed to scrap Shuster’s proposal and protect FAA from congressional meddling by making its funding automatic, rather than subject to annual decisions from lawmakers, with an overhaul of personnel and procurement policies. But his amendment was rejected on a 25-34 vote. “I think fracturing the FAA is a mistake,” DeFazio said. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/02/11/house-panel-votes-privatize-air-traffic-control/80234064/# The bill would change the way the system is funded, from current taxes on airlines to a user fee based on the weight and distance of flights. The bill exempts most of general aviation from the fee changes because those pilots will continue to pay an aviation fuel tax. Business jets that charge customers would pay fees based on weight and distance like airliners, Shuster said. But some general-aviation groups voiced concerns about the fees and that controllers would favor airliners over the pilots of smaller planes. The top lawmakers on the Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate oppose the legislation for threatening to eliminate their oversight. But Shuster said nobody is giving up jurisdiction more than his committee, and the change is necessary to keep the country a leader in aviation.