NY Times Editorial: The FAA, After the Republicans

[amborin]

The FAA, After the Republicans


snip

Republicans, who are experts at such maneuvers, have been holding the reauthorization of the F.A.A. hostage for months, trying to get Democrats in the Senate to agree to weaken transportation workers’ rights.

The tale, like so much in Washington, is a convoluted one, but it comes down to this: Last year, the National Mediation Board changed a rule to make it easier for airline and railroad workers to unionize with a straight majority vote. At the behest of the airlines, House Republicans inserted a provision in the F.A.A. reauthorization bill to undo the rule change. The Senate’s version kept the rule.

With the two chambers unable to agree, Congress would normally have passed a temporary extension for the F.A.A. (a routine vote that has happened 20 times since 2007). But, last month, the House Republicans inserted a provision to end $16.5 million in federal subsidies to keep airports open in 13 rural communities.

Both parties agree subsidies must be cut. But the list, Democrats note, was written in a way to hit airports in the states of prominent Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid. Representative John Mica, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced publicly that the subsidy issue was “just a tool” to get the Senate to give in on the union issue.

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/opinion/the-faa-after-the-republicans.html?src=recg

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

1. This would be a good time for POTUS to use the Bully Pulpit

Why does this man, who is a good public speaker, not use the Bully Pulpit.

[Hawkowl]

2. He is a coward

He has the power and yet chooses not to intervene.

[BR_Parkway]

5. But that wouldn't look bipartisan - or if he did call out the problems, he'd still share

the blame by saying all of them in DC were at fault.

So on one hand, we've got Fair and Balanced Faux news who can only make it look like the Dems fault - and POTUS who can't seem to not resist blaming the Dems along with the Pugs at every opportunity.

[aquart]

3. There's a deal.

[amborin]

4. for now, but key issues remain

"The agreement does not address differences over labor issues that Senate Democrats said were the real reason that Republicans were trying to press for the cuts to rural air service. Democrats had embraced some of those changes in their own long-term F.A.A. reauthorization bill, which was passed earlier this year by the Senate.

The House also passed a long-term F.A.A. bill that included a measure to repeal a rule of the National Mediation Board, which oversees union and labor issues in the airline and railroad industries. The new rule, which passed after President Obama appointed two of the board’s three members, reversed a 76-year-old rule and made it easier for unions to win a representation election. Under the old rule, workers who did not vote were counted as “no” votes; under the new rule, only those casting ballots were counted."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/business/reid-says-deal-has-been-reached-to-reopen-faa.html?hpw