Aviation

Additional Pentagon budget cuts will hinder national security and cause massive job loss, according to the aerospace industry.

"One senator" could prevent the Senate from approving a bill to extend funding for highways and the Federal Aviation Administration, the latter of which expires Friday, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a speech on the floor Wednesday, referring to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla).

Reid (D-Nev.) said under Senate rules, a hold Coburn is placing on a bill to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could prevent lawmakers in the chamber from voting a bill to extend the FAA's funding through January and highway spending through March. The deal, which has already been passed by the House, is widely expected to be approved in the Senate and is being hailed as a victory by transportation advocates after the partial shutdown of the FAA last month.

But Reid said Wednesday that Coburn's objection to the $6.9 billion FEMA bill because of its price could cost more emergency management dollars.

“I am in a situation where I can’t get to this bill until Friday, when it expires,” Reid said of the FAA bill.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of 179 passengers on a plane that was evacuated Wednesday at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., according to several published reports.

A spokesman for the Supreme Court told local news affiliates that Ginsburg, age 78, was on board United Airlines Flight 586 from Dulles to San Francisco when the pilot reported an engine fire to air traffic control. The plane was still on the ground, but passengers were evacuated from the plane using emergency slides before they were returned to the terminal.

Gingsburg, the oldest justice on the Supreme Court, reportedly used one of the slides, but neither she nor any of the other passengers were seriously injured in the incident.

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Transportation associations that had once hoped for more substantive reforms were breathing a sigh of relief Tuesday.

The House passed a bill to avert another FAA shutdown, but didn't provide back pay to workers furloughed earlier this month.

The legislation would extend the FAA through January and highway programs through March.

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) praised the funding extension for highways and the FAA, although long-term appropriations measures will be delayed.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A passenger at Kansas City's International Airport has been charged after faking a bomb threat on the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.

No charges will be filed against passengers on a Detroit flight that made an emergency landing after they were locked in a bathroom on Sept. 11.

Airline delays were down over the summer.

A Southwest Airlines maintenance contractor has been fined by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Without an extension, the government would be unable to collect the federal gas tax, which brings in about $100 million per day. 

With the committee of lawmakers tasked with proposing $1.5 trillion in budget cuts before the end of the year scheduled to meet this week, the group that lobbies for aerospace companies will encourage Congress to spare defense spending in its  forthcoming debt reduction attempts.

The Washington-based Aerospace Industries Association will hold a news conference Wednesday at the National Press Club in the capital city to discuss what it calls  "the devastating job losses, national security threats and infrastructure implications that would result from budget cuts put in motion by the debt-ceiling deal."

Speakers at the AIA news conference event include AIA President James Albaugh, who is also the CEO of airplane manufacturer Boeing, and David Hess, president of aircraft engine manufacturing company Pratt & Whitney.