The back-and-forth over the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues as Congress gears up to leave town for August recess. In the latest development, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has rejected a bipartisan agreement to pass the House FAA Extension legislation, which is supported by President Obama and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV).
Senator Rockefeller has said no to the White House, no to the Secretary of Transportation, no to the thousands of employees at the FAA and YES to Big Labor. As we noted yesterday, Senator Rockefeller is more focused on ensuring that union bosses receive another bailout than ending the shutdown at the FAA.
But overall, the actions of both Senator Reid and Senator Rockefeller are quite disturbing.
Senator Rockefeller is intent on two things: protecting his Big Labor buddies and defending the jobs-killing policies of the Obama regulatory agencies.
For Senator Reid, he continues to point the finger at Delta Airlines, one of America’s largest job creators. Senator Reid, how many jobs have you created?
Not only that, neither sees the irony inherent in the strategy of using 4,000 furloughed FAA employees and tens of thousands of others affected by the shutdown as pawns in their plans to placate union bosses.
Senators Reid and Rockefeller need a serious reality check. Pointing the finger at businesses in an effort to shift blame does nothing to address the real issue—which is more important, keeping the FAA fully operational or appeasing union bosses? I think we know where the Senators stand.