It is what it is...

[FLyellowdog]

The FAA has to cut $637 million as its share of $85 billion in automatic, government-wide spending cuts, These cuts must be made by the end of the federal budget year which is Sept. 30.

It was achieving about a third of the cuts by furloughing nearly all its workers — including the 15,000 air traffic controllers (one day every two weeks) which set off massive air travel delays.

This infuriated the traveling public and caused angst among the members of Congress. The problem was easy to see and easy to understand. And apparently, easy to fix.

The new bill passed by Congress will let the FAA use up to $253 million (about 1/3 of the $637 million they have to cut) from other programs and accounts within their own budget which will halt the furloughs. The money can be used for other FAA operations, too, including keeping open small airport towers around the country that the agency said it would shut to satisfy the spending cuts.

The FAA is NOT getting additional funding from the government. They are making the changes in-house due to a change in the law. It’s merely a juggling of the books, so to speak.

It’s unclear to me whether other government agencies/programs have that flexibility…that is, to make their own decisions about how to implement their share of the government- spending cuts. This may have been just a unique opportunity for the FAA due to the way it’s funded. Who knows?

Yes, it sucks that programs such as Head Start and Meals-on-Wheels don’t seem to have the same opportunity, but it is what it is…a Congress that failed to do its job in the first place.