FAA Construction Shutdown Nears Two-Week Mark
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in an Aug. 3 press conference, “House Republicans are playing games with the FAA,” adding that nearly 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed and 70,000 workers in construction, were harmed by the cutoff of projects and stalled grant awards.
FAA programs, including airport grants, have operated under a series of 20 extensions since Sept. 30, 2007, when the last multi-year aviation bill expires.
Nearly all of those 20 stopgaps have been clean bills, simply extending funding authority and aviation taxes.
But when House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) proposed a 21st extension, it included a provision to cut federal subsidies for flights to rural airports. The House passed the bill on July 20.
Democrats balked at Mica’s bill, and charged that Mica was really using the rural subsidy provision to gain some leverage over Democrats on a labor-relations issue.
Democrats say Republicans want to overturn a National Mediation Board (NMB) statement that makes it easier for unions to organize workers at non-union companies.
But Mica countered in an Aug. 3 statement, “Senate Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for this partial shutdown of FAA programs and airport projects.”
Mica added, “There are no labor provisions in the House-passed extension…There are a number of unresolved issues in negotiations [on a long-term FAA bill] with the Senate, including the NMB labor provision.
He said, “We have been willing to compromise, willing to negotiate, find common ground. But powerful Senate Democrats have chosen to protect an airline ticket subsidy program on the backs of thousands of FAA employees and airport construction workers.”
