Aviation

The Federal Aviation Administration is now expected to furlough 4,000 employees because of a congressional standoff.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority Director Jay Welder is leaving for a job in Hong Kong.

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is joining the board of directors at Delta Airlines.

The Department of Transportation has signed off on a trade of gate rights at New York's LaGuardia International Airport and Washington's Reagan National Airport, with conditions.

A woman has been charged in a fatal Greyhound bus crash in California.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is working furiously to convince lawmakers to pass a funding measure for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The possible shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration if lawmakers cannot agree on a short-term funding measure by Friday could put passenger-safety programs in jeopardy, the union for the agency said Thursday.

“We urge lawmakers to take swift action to ensure that FAA safety programs will continue to operate and that the flying public will not be impacted,” Tom Brantley, president of Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO, said in a statement. “Holding FAA safety programs hostage by insisting that controversial provisions be addressed at the 11th hour is not fair to the employees who face furloughs at midnight on Friday, and it is certainly not fair to the American flying public.” 
 
Lawmakers already were at an impasse over a long-term funding bill for the FAA, but this week, they couldn’t even agree on a temporary measure that would have been the 21st stopgap the agency would have received.

Members of Congress should not try to block the European Union from requiring airlines operating in its countries to trade emissions, an environmental group said this week.

The New York-based Environmental Defense Fund said that a bill introduced this week by members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would "worsen air pollution and force U.S. airlines to violate a European anti-pollution law."

"It’s simply baffling that these legislators are working so hard to keep U.S. airlines in the dark ages of relying on inefficient airplanes and outdated technologies,” EDF International Counsel Annie Petsonk said in a statement. “This is an aggressive attempt by a few House members both to worsen pollution by scuttling a pioneering environmental law and to force U.S. airlines to become scofflaws.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

At least one newspaper contributor agrees with a woman who was arrested for groping a Transportation Security Administration agent.

The director of Charlotte Airport says the TSA "singled out" his facility during an investigation over a stowaway.

Authorities involved in the proposed expansion of Washington's MetroRail to Dulles International Airport have agreed to an above-ground station.

The investigation into the crash of a train on Amtrak's Downeaster route in New England could take awhile.

FAA might have to shut down some of its operations if Congress does not pass a funding extension by Friday.

With both parties threatening a shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration Wednesday if an agreement cannot be reached on a short-term funding measure for the agency, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said they lawmakers should save their disagreements for another day.

“Congress needs to stop playing games, work out its differences, and pass a clean FAA bill immediately. There is no excuse for not getting this done,” LaHood said in a statement released by the Department of Transportation. “Important programs and construction projects are at stake. This stalemate must be resolved.”

The current funding measure for the FAA expires Friday. The House passed a short-term extension Wednesday, but it included changes to the Essential Air Service program that provides grants to airlines for flying to rural airports that have not been included in previous short-term bills.

Rep. Mica said Senate Democrats would be blamed for an FAA shutdown if the Senate doesn't accept the House bill.

The House on Wednesday approved a rule allowing consideration of H.R. 2553, which would extend airport and airway taxes for about six weeks. These taxes help fund the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) but will expire on Friday unless extended.

The rule for the bill was approved in a 242-178 vote, and members were expected to debate and vote on the extension later Wednesday.

But while the bill is cast as an extension of FAA taxes through Sept. 16, it would also make key changes to the Essential Air Service program (EAS), which subsidizes air service in smaller communities. The EAS program costs about $200 million per year.