Facing a Sept. 30 deadline, Congress has approved a six-month extension for Federal Aviation Administration programs, include airport construction grants. The legislation, which the House and Senate passed on Sept. 23, now goes to President Bush for his signature. Without the extension, authority for FAA programs would expire at the end of September.

The newly passed bill provides $1.95 billion in contract authority through April 1 for FAA's Airport Improvement Program grants, which finance infrastructure work, and authorizes continued collection of excise taxes that support the Airport and Airway Trust Fund through March 31.

The measure is the latest of several short-term FAA extensions since last fall, which have been necessary because Congress has failed to approve a multi-year aviation reauthorization measure.

The bill's $1.95-billion allotment for AIP grants is based on a full-year 2009 authorization of $3.9 billion. That compares with the $3.7-billion authorized for 2007 in the last long-term FAA measure, the Vision 100--Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act, which was signed into law in December 2003.

Actual AIP funding for 2009 depends on its appropriation. The House Appropriations Committee has proposed a continuing resolution funding most federal programs through March 6 at their 2008 spending levels. That would limit AIP's appropriation to about $1.46 billion through March 6, or about $60 million less than the new FAA extension authorizes.