A bill (H.R. 636) to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through September 30, 2017, cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate on April 6, 2016, with a 98-0 vote in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill.

The bill was approved by the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee last month as S. 2658; a House-passed revenue bill (H.R. 636) is now the vehicle for the measure in anticipation that it will carry tax provisions. A tax title to provide funding for FAA programs is expected to be added. FAA programs and revenue provisions are currently in effect through July 15, 2016.

As a revenue bill — and likely one of the only such bills with any urgency to come before Congress this year — the measure is being eyed as a vehicle for tax provisions unrelated to aviation. Press reports indicated an emerging agreement among senators to at least add a package of renewable energy provisions inadvertently left out of the 2015 year-end tax bill, which include tax code Section 48 credits for geothermal heat pump property, small wind property, combined heat and power property, and qualified fuel cell and stationary microturbine power plant property.

It is possible that other tax provisions could be added, even outside of the scope of renewable energy. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) today said progress is being made toward an agreement on tax-related amendments to the bill. Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) suggested he may insist on offsets for tax provisions, Politico reported.

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