The FCT Program was born in 1982 to open five towers that had been closed as a result of the strike under a republican president and a mixed chamber. In 1984 under the same republican president and mixed chamber 10 more towers were added, bringing the total to 15.
This was done for a legitimate reason... it wasn't due to lobbying or special interest.
Throughout that republican president's second term, and the next republican presidents term - nothing changed...for almost 10 years.
This is true but keep in mind... during that time period aviation and the FAA as a whole were not doing badly and the late 80's early 90's were not a good time for the airlines. Just ask any pilot on this board that was flying back then. No pun intended but the FAA and specifically the FAA were flying under the radar. I will tell you, I was not an officer of NATCA at that time but the rumors of privatization were around inside the agency.
Bill Clinton did not declare air traffic control inherently governmental until roughly 33 days before leaving office (December 7, 2000). This was after he served two terms with both chambers having a democratic majority who ordered up and then authorized the funds to contract what ended up being 145 towers, bringing the total number to 160. Additionally, he had slated all remaining Level 1 towers to contract as well, but the A-76 lawsuit stopped that in 1998. Lest we forget, with that same signature he created the ATO and declared the the FAA a performance-based agency, laying the OSI/SCI egg.
I had that date wrong... I was actually in DC with NATCA when he signed it. The contract tower program under Clinton actually had the support of the NATCA leadership at the time. There is more to the story (deal making re: 98' contract) that was part of it that I will not air on this board. My personal opinion and the opinion of others in the union at the time differed from the union leadership. Those years under Clinton were very good for federal workers and some people lost sight of the big picture.
On June 4th of 2002, George Bush, with both chambers under a republican majority, amended EO 13180, striking "inherently governmental" from the language. This republican president, with both chambers under a republican majority for six of eight years did nothing to continue the Federal Contract Program, despite having the language stricken.
I could not disagree with that more... privatization of the NAS is not something that can happen until many things are brought in line, most notably the power of NATCA (cost). Breaking the unions hold on ATC was step one towards privatizing ATC. For a company like Lockheed or Boeing to come in the Gov't needs to have all of its ducks in a row. They need to break the union, then consolidate facilities, get as much of their equipment and tech people in the door, then take over the system. Under Bush Lockheed and Raytheon have sold the FAA a large amount of equipment that they also provide on site support with their own people at a cost to the Gov't. AF is no longer as involved in the equipment as they once were. Look at what the Bush FAA did to FSS ... they brought all their costs in line and once done sold it Lockheed.
With the democrats, and only the democrats in charge, history has shown that privatization is not only spoken about, but studied and funded. With the republicans, and only the republicans in charge, history has shown nothing changes in regards to privatization.
See above... during that time period it had the unions blessing on much of it.
While I would like nothing more than your words to be true, I'm going to pin my hopes to the future, and not to the past...
Again, I have no idea what your background is but there is far more going on behind the scenes than you noted in your post. The Republicans are a lot more sneaky about privatization than you think... in a way they are very smart about it. They know they can never win a staright out up down vote to sell of the system, what they have been doping under Bush has been systematically allowing contractors to take over the system fron the inside out. I'm not partisan... I have many issues with the Democrats but what I have seen FIRST HAND under Bush scares me. I also FIRST HAND witnessed the concern of the contractos when Obama got elected... just look at the recent press releases by compnaies such as boeing.
The 1998 OIG Audit of the FCT Program. On page 10, the Introduction gives the background of the program:
http://www.oig.dot.gov/StreamFile?file=/data/pdfdocs/av1998147.pdf
Executive Order 13180, signed by Bill Clinton on December 7, 2000:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2000_register&docid=fr11de00-135.pdf
Executive Order Amendment to 13180, signed by George Bush on June 4, 2002:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020606-5.html
Bill Clinton signed 55 directives to implement NPR. The FAA, and the above Executive Order is on that list:
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/whoweare/historyofnpr.html