Senate Democrats are tired of losing policy standoffs to Republicans. They are desperate for a win, any win, and they do not care who they have to hurt to get it. Hence Majority Leader Harry Reid’s, D-Nev., decision to block a vote on a House bill that would have temporarily funded the Federal Aviation Administration through September. Without the funding, the FAA is now in a partial shutdown that will cause 4,000 FAA employee furloughs, 70,000 lost construction jobs, and $1.2 billion in lost revenue.
Senate Democrats cite two problems with the House FAA bill: 1) it reverses a new National Labor Relations Board ruling that makes it easier to unionize, and 2) it cuts $16.5 million in funding for in “Essential Air Service” to 13 rural communities. The first objection is completely bogus. A long-term FAA funding bill approved by the House did contain a provision that reversed the NLRB ruling, but the temporary House funding bill, the one that would have kept everyone employed through September, does not contain any labor provisions in it. That leaves the $16.5 million in subsidies for rural airports. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., explains what is really going on here: “The only one holding this up now is Mr. Rockefeller.” Mica was referring to Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., whose Morgantown, W.Va., airport is one of 13 rural communities that would lose subsidies in the House bill.
