FAA shutdown is about Dems protecting pork and Big Labor

Marathon Pundit in New Mexico

While the debt-limit increase is understandably the most prominent issue currently being debated on Capitol Hill, another item of contention is the FAA Reauthorization Bill. First a bit of history: During the Jimmy Carter administration, the airlines were deregulated, which lowered airfares. One of the reasons they were regulated by the federal government to begin with was to prevent cherry-picking--airlines flying between Chicago and New York, for instance--while ignoring rural areas. So to ease the pain for rural residents, federal subsidies, dubbed the Essential Air Service (EAS) program, were given to rural airports--which were supposed to last just 10 years. Guess what? They've been in place until last weekend, when the last FAA Reauthorization Bill expired.

So Johnstown Airport, a pet project of the late pork-barrel king, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), gets EAS cash, even though it's just a two-hour drive from Pittsburgh. The last time I flew from O'Hare Airport, I met a couple from White Pigeon, Michigan--which is two hours from Chicago--while in the baggage check-in line. They drove to O'Hare to make the flight. People adjust. Oh, there's an airport in Montana receiving EAS money--and flights there serve an average of six passengers. Well, at least the bathroom lines are short.

The GOP plan is to eliminate EAS subsidies if the exceed $1,000 per passenger, which would terminate service to three airports: Ely, Nevada ($3,720); Alamogordo/Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico ($1,563); and Glendive, Montana ($1,358).

Four thousand FAA employees--but no air traffic controllers--have been furloughed. The GOP also wants to reinstate a union election rule that has been in place for 75 years--until an Obama-radicalized agency created a new rule favored by Big Labor.

The current FAA Reauthorization bill is good legislation. But the Dems want to continue funding the pork bandwagon and to blow more kisses at their Big Labor pals.

Related posts:

Unions turning up the vitriol in FAA fight
Statement from Rep. John Mica on FAA partial shutdown
WFI issues statement concerning FAA situation
Union bosses and Dems behind partial FAA shutdown
GOP bill will eliminate some airport subsidies

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