Dems to Boehner: Call for a conference on FAA bill

Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee called on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to open negotiations with the Senate over a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding bill, saying Republicans on the panel had dragged their feet on the talks.

Earlier this spring, the House and Senate passed drastically different versions of the reauthorization bill for the FAA. The Senate measure provided $34.5 billion over two years, while the House provided $59 billion over four years.

However, the House measure, which President Obama has threatened to veto, includes provisions that would make it harder for airline and railroad employees to unionize.

In a letter to Boehner obtained Tuesday by The Hill, the ranking Democrat on the Transportation Committee, Rep. Nick Rahall (W.Va.), said it was time for Boehner to step in and accelerate talks between the chambers.

"On April 7, 2011, the Senate requested a conference with the House on H.R. 656, the 'FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011,' and appointed conferees," Rahall wrote to Boehner. "Nevertheless, over the past 100 days, the House has taken no action to agree to a conference with the Senate to resolve the differences between the House and Senate-passed Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bills.

"As a result, the FAA has continued to operate under a series of short-term extension acts that are slowing airport construction projects and costing taxpayers millions of dollars and the nation tens of thousands of family-wage jobs," Rahall continued. "On behalf of the Democratic members of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, we write to urge you to agree to a conference with the Senate on H.R. 658, appoint conferrers, and let the conference committee work its will — in an open and transparent process — on the controversial issues included in the House-passed Republican bill."

Last week, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said he was introducing another short-term bill to keep FAA funding at current levels, the 21st such stopgap measure.

“It is unfortunate that we have been put in this position, again, by the current Senate leadership, who refuse to negotiate in the best interest of the American public,” Mica said Friday in a statement released by his office. “When Democrats controlled the House and Senate, Congress also failed to act, and unfortunately Democrat tactics have not changed. Our nation’s aviation system cannot operate effectively under the Senate’s ongoing political gamesmanship.

"Clearly, some in the Senate have made a political decision to put special-interest labor provisions above the safety of our nation’s aviation system,” Mica added of the labor provisions both sides agree are the sticking point in negotiations.

The current 20th stopgap FAA bill is set to expire July 22. The new version would include changes to the Essential Air Service that are included in the Senate version of the long-term FAA bill. It would place a limit of 90 miles from a large or medium airport on EAS eligibility.