Holding Pattern Again

Do the 4,000 FAA workers furloughed for two weeks last summer have “real” jobs? I wonder. Last Friday, President Obama signed another short-term deal to fund the work of FAA. Let’s set aside, for now, that the money will last until only Jan. 31 … that this last-minute deal was almost derailed by one senator squabbling over highway beautification mandates … and that another short-term fix – No. 23 – seems like a sure bet considering the uncommon ground between Democrats and Republicans in D.C. But here’s one item that should be pointed out since I didn’t read about it in any major press accounts of last week’s FAA extension. Paying FAA workers back for the 13 days they missed had been included in an early draft of the legislation. But when the FAA deal was combined with yet another separate extension to keep paying for federal highway construction and improvement projects, set to expire at the end of this month, the back pay provisions were dropped. Apparently, the Senate wanted a “clean” extension, hoping to avoid a repeat of last summer’s two-week partial shutdown of the nation’s aviation network. So the House passed a straight-forward extension that was clean of any policy changes or extraneous issues, such as paying 4,000 people what must amount to 4,000 paychecks or debating larger issues that might provide money to run FAA past four more months. “While I understand the Senate’s insistence for a straight-forward FAA extension, these workers were furloughed due to no fault of their own,” said Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) in a statement. “They and their families experienced financial hardships due to Congress’ inability to act.” The representative, who also sits on the House Aviation subcommittee, added he will continue in his efforts to bring up the legislation again as a standalone bill and “make the situation right.”