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Committee reports bill to let FAA funds go directly to DTW, sponsors say it will cut months of delay
Summary
Senate Bill 269 would amend Michigan's aeronautics channeling act to allow FAA grants to go directly to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), which airport officials said would substantially shorten reimbursement delays that have left contractor invoices outstanding for months.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 269 and voted to report the measure with a recommendation.
Tyler Marava, representing the sponsor, said the bill would change Michigan’s channeling practice so FAA-awarded federal funds can be delivered directly to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) rather than first routing through MDOT. He argued the change would reduce administrative delay and improve transparency; he cited Illinois’ similar 2021 change and said other states without channeling saw funds arrive in days instead of months after CARES Act allocations.
Amber Hunt, chief financial officer for Detroit Metro Airport, told the committee the airport currently has about 20 open grants and that routing through MDOT adds administrative steps that can delay reimbursements. "We don't have a lot of days of cash on hand," Hunt said, adding that delays during construction season forced the airport to float tens of millions of dollars for contractor invoices.
Scott Roberts, DTW’s director of capital planning, said some grants create invoice backlogs that can exceed $10,000,000 and that, in DTW’s experience, processing times climbed from weeks to months during COVID-era grants. He told legislators the airport will be submitting 20 reimbursement requests totaling about $20,000,000, with roughly $16.8 million in the 'grama' portion that would benefit from faster processing.
Members asked whether the state collects administrative fees (witnesses said no), whether other airports could opt out of the channeling requirement (witnesses said the channeling act helps smaller airports but an opt-out discussion could be considered), and how much time the change would save (witnesses said typically weeks, but DTW experienced months). Committee members expressed interest in an opt-out amendment that would allow other airports to choose alternative routing in the future.
The committee read a supporting card from NDOT and then voted to report Senate Bill 269 with recommendation. The roll-call formatting in the transcript is inconsistent; the committee recorded that the motion prevailed and SB 269 was reported with recommendation.
