EMB ERJ 190/195 ER/LR
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure
I issued Air Carrier X to 'Cross 10 DME at or above 2;500 FT; cleared Mount Vernon Visual Runway One.' This clearance would never have taken the pilot outside of the Class Bravo airspace. A VFR aircraft on the SFRA frequency was flying right below the Class Bravo at 2;400 FT. I issued timely traffic to the Air Carrier X pilot. The pilot received a TCAS RA from the VFR aircraft. I verified with the pilot that the TCAS told him to descend and he said yes. I informed him that he was now outside of the Class Bravo. At the time of the event; I was on position for well over an hour and a half. And there was a Class Bravo airwork plane that was flying East/West lines for the duration of my time on position that made the session very difficult. That is why it was necessary not to have the arrivals into DCA too high at all. And as I stated; I never issued anything that would have taken the aircraft outside of the Bravo and issued a traffic call about the VFR SFRA traffic. No error was made. Expand the Class Bravo 1;500 FT shelf much further south of DCA. The pilots for DCA need to be able to get low enough to make a stabilized approach.
PCT Controller issuing a Visual Approach to DCA noted the aircraft departing the confines of Class B in response to a TCAS RA; the reporter advocated expansion of the existing Class B airspace.