|
 |
 |
|
Senate Dems to Boehner: Appoint FAA conferees
Saying that he could avoid another shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, Democratic senators called Tuesday for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to appoint negotiators to discuss a long-term bill to fund the beleaguered agency.
In a letter to Boehner Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Maria Cantwell (Wash.) said Boehner and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) should show they want to avert another shutdown by beginning negotiations with the Senate.
"Public statements from you and Chairman John Mica say that you are 'willing to use every tool at your disposal' to negotiate a final FAA bill, yet one tool you have so far been unwilling to use is the normal legislative process," they wrote. "More than 120 days ago, a bipartisan group of Senators was appointed to the conference committee between the Senate and House FAA bills. These Senators are eager to negotiate in earnest, but their House counterparts have not been named more than 4 months after the House passed their FAA bill."
"With another deadline for an FAA extension looming in just a few short weeks, we encourage you to use your authority to appoint House conferees during the pro-forma session so that we may resolve our issues and put Americans back to work," they said.
In an op-ed in one of his hometown papers Tuesday, Mica similarly blamed Democrats for the shutdown of the FAA and said they should accept House provisions to avert another shutdown.
"The American people have witnessed firsthand during this minor difference of opinion — blown up into a crisis by Senate Democrats — how truly difficult it is to bring about even modest reforms and cut wasteful programs in Washington," he said.
About 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed for nearly two weeks when the agency was partially shut down because of an impasse between Republicans in the House and Democrats in the Senate over a short-term funding bill.
Negotiations on a larger bill have stalled since the spring, when the House included a provision to undo labor rules designed to make it easier for transportation employees to unionize.
The provisions, which address rules changed last year by the National Mediation Board, drew a veto threat from President Obama.
The shutdown of the FAA was projected to cost the federal government about $30 million per day as sales taxes on airline ticket purchases could not be collected without congressional action. In addition to the FAA workers, transportation observers say about 70,000 workers were put out of work by canceled airport construction projects.
The bill that was approved to end the shutdown last week only funds the FAA through Sept. 16, so the debate about the agency's funding will likely resume as soon as lawmakers return from their traditional August recess.
