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

The Obama administration has left "American astronauts with no alternative but to hitchhike into space," Gov. Perry said.

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.

Rep. John Kline said the board's complaint against Boeing could make companies think twice about investing in the United States.

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these legislators are working so hard to keep U.S. airlines in the dark ages of relying on inefficient airplanes and outdated technologies,” EDF International Counsel Annie Petsonk said in a statement.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.

The Treasury Department said the government has sold off its remaining shares in the auto company.

Several politicians used Twitter to mark the landing of the last space shuttle on Thursday morning.

The shuttle Atlantis, NASA's 135th shuttle voyage, touched down at 5:57 a.m. EDT at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA @nasahqphoto tweeted a photo of the historic landing, saying, "Atlantis touches down at Kennedy Space Center Check it out!! http://flic.kr/p/a5FASB"

The White House tweeted congratulations, as did the vice president's office.

Several members of Congress took to the Twitterverse to express mixed emotions about the past and future of space exploration.

Much of the discussion thus far about a new federal surface transportation bill has focused on the House, but the Senate will discuss its proposal Thursday morning.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will meet Thursday to begin debate on the two-year, $109 billion bill that has been proposed by committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

In contrast, the Republican-led House has said it would move forward with a smaller per-year but longer-running spending bill. The House GOP measure would spend $230 billion on transportation projects over six years.

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.