Thursday, August 04, 2011

Congress Reaches Interim Deal on FAA Funding

Congress has completely screwed up with fight over extending the authorization of taxes that fund FAA operations. They refused to extend the tax authorization, meaning the agency was losing $25 million a day (more than $250 million since the last authorization ran out).

The fight was two-fold. On the one hand, Democrats were pushing a change to union election rules, while the GOP was pushing for the elimination of a rural airport service rule.

The impasse left thousands of FAA workers without paychecks, and put infrastructure projects on hold while the agency scrambled to keep inspections and air safety programs in operation.

So, it's good to know that a deal was brokered and will be passed tomorrow extending matters; it's a clean bill - no changes on either the rural program or the union rules.

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