Aviation

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Former U.S. Airways pilot Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger doesn't like a proposed garbage facility near New York's LaGuardia Airport.

Seattle drivers could soon be paying more to register their cars to pay for road and transit projects.

The Secret Service bus being used for President Obama's tour is getting a lot of attention.

The Philadelphia International Airport has run afoul of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

Judicial Watch, like Republican critics of the lawsuit in Congress, argues that the NLRB’s case against Boeing is politically motivated.

A union leader on Tuesday said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) was wrong to say union members were "being used as pawns and doped tools" by Democrats in the debate over funding the Federal Aviation Administration.

Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) President Veda Shook accused Mica of playing politics.

Members of the union, which represents flight attendants, protested outside Mica's Florida office to call for Congress to pass a longer-term bill for the FAA than the measure it approved this month, which provides money for the agency only until September. The bill that was approved ended furloughs for about 4,000 FAA workers, but it only covers the agency through Sept. 16.

In an interview with a Florida radio station, Mica said he did not take the protests personally because he thought the members of the union were being put up to demonstrate by his political opponents.

But Shook said that it was Mica who was being political.

“Talk about the pot calling the kettle black," Shook said in a statement titled "John Mica Loses Tenuous Grip with Reality on FAA Bill."

Federal Aviation Administration workers are worked about being furloughed again when Congress comes back from its summer recess, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday.

Earlier this month, about 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed for nearly two weeks when Congress could not agree on passing the short-term measure, which was originally intended to buy time for a long-term authorization that is being bogged down by labor provisions.

The measure approved by Congress this month to end the impasse only funds the FAA through the middle of September, and LaHood said Tuesday any relief the agency employees are feeling about being back-to-work is being trumped by fears they'll be kicked off the job again soon.

"These are hardworking, dedicated professionals on the front lines of developing many of the NextGen technologies that will completely revolutionize our air transportation system and get passengers to their destinations more quickly and with a smaller carbon footprint," LaHood wrote on his "FastLane" blog on the Department of Transportation's website after holding a town-hall meeting at a FAA facility in Atlantic City, N.J.

"And yet, the most common question I was asked during our town hall was, 'Is this going to happen again.'"

Your morning transportation speed-read:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he will sign a bill to require streets to be designed with non-car uses in mind too.

Immigration officials are increasing their inspections of Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses.

Tea Party leaders in Georgia are opposed to moving a vote on a proposed transportation tax.

New York's John F. Kennedy Airport experienced a record amount of rainfall.

The Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said a union protesting his district office over the absence of a long-term funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is "being used as pawns and doped tools" by Democrats. 

Members of the union that represents flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), reportedly held a demonstration outside Mica's Florida office to call for Congress to pass a longer bill for the FAA than the measure it approved this month, which provides money for the agency only until September. About 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed for nearly two weeks earlier this month when Congress could not agree on passing the short-term measure, which was originally intended to buy time for a longer law that is being bogged down by labor provisions.
 
"They're being used as pawns and doped tools in a larger national debate," Mica said in an interview with Florida radio station WMFE that is scheduled to air Tuesday morning. "I feel kind of pity for them by the way they've been abused by the leadership in Washington."

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Flooding shut down trains near Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport on Monday morning.

A trash facility is being blamed for birds that congregate near New York's LaGuardia Airport.

Hackers targeted the website of San Francisco's Bay Area Transit Authority.

Los Angeles officials are considering linking Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to rail.

Rep. Darrell Issa on Friday described the National Labor Relations Board as a “rogue agency.” 

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) should withdraw subpoenas he issued for documents related to the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) legal complaint against airplane manufacturer Boeing, a trio of veteran Democratic lawmakers said Friday.

Over the objection of Democrats on his own House Oversight Committee, Issa subpoenaed the labor oversight panel after saying the NLRB did not provide enough documents for his investigation into the panel's case against Boeing. The NLRB argues that Boeing decided to build a plant in South Carolina to retaliate for labor strikes at its existing facilities in Washington state.

But in a letter to Issa released Friday, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), George Miller (D-Calif.) and John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said the chairman should let the legal proceeding run its course.

"We are writing to request that you withdraw the unilateral subpoena you served on Sunday to the National Labor Relations Board in light of a recent court ruling that effectively eliminates the purported basis for the committee's investigation," the Democrats wrote, referring to Seattle Administrative Law Judge Clifford Anderson's ruling in June against a motion to dismiss the NLRB case from Boeing.

The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee again took to the pages of a newspaper Friday to defend his role in the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, saying an editorial in the Jacksonville Times-Union in his home state that criticized the shutdown "told only part of the story."

In an op-ed published earlier this week, the Times-Union's editorial board said "Washington can't seem to do anything right, as illustrated by the partial shutdown involving the Federal Aviation Administration.

"A Republican-dominated House and a Democratic-dominated Senate played power games — and then left on vacation," the editorial continued. "Eventually, they figured out a solution, but not until damage had been done. The damage to the institution of Congress can't get much worse. At 82 percent disapproval, Congress has the highest negative rating in the history of the CBS-New York Times Poll. But the damage to the people they represent is serious."

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Transportation committee, disagreed with the paper's take. Mica wrote in Friday to say "Democratic Senate leaders chose to demagogue the issue and attempted to cast blame," placing the fault squarely on that party's shoulders.