So now we learn that first lady Michelle Obama’s plane had to abort a landing yesterday at Andrews Air Force Base, thanks to a mistake by an FAA air traffic controller. The controller’s error could have resulted in a collision involving the aircraft carrying Obama and a military jet. And just two days ago, another controller working in a Federal Aviation Administration facility near Cleveland became so engrossed while watching “Cleaner” — a forgettable 2007 action movie featuring Samuel L. Jackson — that he failed to realize the sound track was going out through his radio to all of the aircraft in the airspace he was supposed to be monitoring on his radar. Only a call from a military pilot jolted him out of his cinematic reverie. These latest bring to nine the number of outrages in recent months in which air traffic controllers were found to be sleeping on the job or otherwise not paying proper attention to their duties. Since air traffic controllers have the lives of thousands of commercial airline passengers and crew members in their hands, such on-the-job negligence is simply unacceptable.

But sensational as the headlines have been about snoozing controllers and as critically important as it surely is that the agency fix the problem as soon as possible, there is another side to this story that demands urgent congressional attention. Just as there are sick buildings made ill by too much encrusted “stuff” accumulating in the air vents and furniture over the years, there are sick government agencies enfeebled and blinded by insular management and apathetic regulators. Such is the case with the FAA.