Quick Fix to FAA Furloughs Allows Congress to Resume Tedious Shade-Throwing
By David Weigel | Posted Friday, April 26, 2013, at 11:41 AM
On April 21, the FAA did what the Department of Transporation had warned for two months: It started furloughing employees. For four business days, reporters (and actual people) noticed that planes were being held unusually long times on the ground; occasionally, pilots would explain that sequestration was the reason for the delay.
So Congress ... actually acted! Quickly! The Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013 was written, introduced in the Senate, passed easily, and is curently being debated in the House before it easily passes there. It shuffles $253 million from the FAAs Airport Improvement Program into operationsproblem solved. As a matter of optics, it joins the White House tours in the calvacade of easy-to-cover stuff that affects people in D.C. and thus gets demogogued.
That's basically what the House debate is for. The median Republican speech sounds like the one Rep. Tom Cotton gave, blaming "President Obama's needless furlough of air traffic controllers" for the sudden outrage.
The median Democratic speech asks why this, and not any social spending cut by sequestration, is back on the operating table. The gambitwhich will failis asking Congress to stick around next week and put the bill through regular order, with amendments.
full article
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/04/26/quick_fix_to_faa_furloughs_allows_congress_to_resume_tedious_shade_throwing.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content