Airports Council International-North America Chairman David N. Edwards Jr.  said his group is “very disappointed that…AIP was used to pay for this fix….” Edwards, who also is CEO of the Greenville-Spartanburg [S.C.] Airport District, said , "ACI-NA supported other common-sense bipatisan legislation that did not use AIP to eliminate the furloughs.”

Brian Deery, senior director of the Associated General Contractors of America highway and transportation division, says, "We're not happy about it. We're never happy when they take money out of infrastructure."

He adds that trust-fund financed programs have pluses and minuses. "The plus, of course, is you have a steady revenue source. The downside is that you've got a big target when money is needed for other things."

Deery notes that construction programs like AIP tend to "spend out" over longer periods of time than other budget accounts. Thus for AIP, he says, "There's a big balance..that was just sitting there, sort of ripe for the stealing."

Senate commerce committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said, “By plugging a hole in the budget and providing the FAA with crucial funds to operate the air traffic control system, we will eliminate flight delays due to inadequate staffing and keep America moving.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) had criticized FAA’s management of the sequester, and contended the agency had the ability to avoid furloughs by trimming non-personnel items, such as supplies and travel.

After the House passed the bill, Shuster said, “Although the FAA already had the necessary flexibility to implement the sequester in a responsible manner, this legislation ensures beyond a shadow of a doubt that the agency now has more than enough capacity to end air traffic controller furloughs, stop the pain for the traveling public, and protect the economy.”