House Approves Aviation Funds for 4 Years WASHINGTON - The House on Friday approved $63 billion to pay for federal aviation programs through 2015, acting after five years of dispute and 23 short-term extensions of financing that the Federal Aviation Administration said made it harder to carry out its mandate. The bill provides money for airport construction and expansion, for upgrading air traffic control systems to use Global Positioning System technology, and for an expansion of the use of unmanned drones in domestic airspace, among other things. The measure, a compromise between the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate, passed on a 248-169 vote. A majority of Republicans supported the bill, while Democrats overwhelmingly opposed it. The Senate is expected to approve the bill next week, sending it to the White House for President Obama to sign. "This bipartisan long-term blueprint for aviation programs is nearly five years overdue," said Representative John L. Mica, the Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Democrats failed to pass a reauthorization and address needed reforms during the four years they controlled the House and Senate. Twenty-three short-term hiccup extensions later, Congress is now acting to ensure that the U.S. aviation system remains a strong and vital part of our economy. The bill is the first long-term extension for the aviation agency since 2007. Negotiators from both parties struck an agreement to finance the agency on Tuesday after years of debate that jeopardized long-term projects and forced a partial shutdown of the agency last summer. The shutdown cost the government $350 million in lost taxes on airline tickets. The financing would speed the agency's transition to GPS technology as it prepares for a sharp increase in air traffic. The program, called NextGen, would allow pilots to know exactly where other planes and obstacles are, facilitating closer, more frequent landings and takeoffs and fewer delays and diversions. Twenty-four Democrats supported the bill despite their objections to some of its provisions, such as a requirement that at least 50 percent of an airline's employees support a vote on organizing a union before that vote can take place, up from 35 percent. The labor provisions are "unnecessary language that would inject politics in what otherwise should be a clean bill to make the skies safer," said Representative Louise M. Slaughter of New York, a Democrat who voted against the bill. The bill does not include passenger protections that Democrats favored, like ensuring that planes do not wait more than three hours on an airport tarmac before takeoff or after landing.