FAA Shutdown Resolution Disputed

By Bill Waters
08/03/2011 08:09 PM ET

FAA shutdown resolution disputed. President Barack Obama urged Congress on Wednesday to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, which began nearly two weeks ago because of a partisan standoff over air service to rural communities and union organizing.

Obama noted that nearly 4,000 FAA workers have been furloughed, another 70,000 workers involved in airport construction projects are affected and the country stands to lose more than $1 billion in revenue from uncollected airline ticket taxes during the shutdown if Congress leaves the problem hanging until lawmakers return in September.

"So this is a lose-lose-lose situation," he said.

Even in trying to pressure Congress to act, the White House is considering what options Obama has to intervene in the dispute, spokesman Jay Carney said.

When asked directly what he could do to step in, Obama told reporters: "I have made calls to key leaders, and I am urging them to get this done."

A White House official later confirmed that Obama called House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, about the FAA flap on Wednesday.

The Republican leader's public response was the whole problem can be resolved almost immediately if Senate Democrats will only accept a mere $16.5 million in air service subsidy cuts that the House last month attached to a bill to extend FAA's operating authority. "The only reason so many jobs are at stake is Senate Democratic leaders chose to play politics rather than pass the House bill," Boehner said in a statement.

But Democratic leaders, speaking at a Capitol Hill news conference, said the cuts are a sham. The real issue, they said, is that Republicans are provoking crisis after crisis to get Democrats to accept policy changes that the GOP wouldn't be able to achieve through normal legislative negotiations.

That strategy was successful during the debt limit negotiations, but Democrats said they are drawing a line on the FAA shutdown.

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