Tag Archives: FAA

Another Temper Tantrum By A President Who Does Not Put America First

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Yesterday the Wall Street Journal posted a story about the flight delays that occurred in some major American airports yesterday.

The article reports:

This week the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began furloughing each of its air-traffic controllers for one day out of every 10 to achieve roughly $600 million in savings this fiscal year. The White House dubiously claims that the furloughs are required by the sequester spending cuts enacted in 2011.

Capitol Hill Republicans say the White House is free to make other cuts instead. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster suggests the FAA first take a whack at the $500 million it’s spending on consultants, or perhaps the $325 million it blows on supplies and travel.

The FAA is under the Department of Transportation (DOT). To illustrate what is going on here, the article points out that while airport travelers were being delayed at the airports due to sequestration budget cuts, the DOT website announced a $474 million grant program that promises to “make communities more livable and sustainable.”

It is becoming increasingly obvious that our current leaders do not know how to manage money. At some point in the near future, we need to replace the spendaholics with responsible adults–our survival as a country depends on it.

 

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About Those FAA Tower Closings…

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On Saturday, Hot Air posted an article citing some interesting details about the FAA towers that are about to be closed due to sequestration. There are a number of towers that can be closed without endangering public safety. Obviously, because of budget cuts, the government had to decide which towers to close down.

The article reports:

It’s not just the number of towers being shut down, but which specific ones. And more to the point… who works there. When you scan down the list of closures, these are all towers which are managed and staffed by private contractors. Not one of them is staffed up by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union. That’s something of a remarkable coincidence, isn’t it?

…No FAA air-traffic facilities will be shut down for at least a year, Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union, said in an e-mailed statement.

The FAA’s union contract requires that controllers get at least a year’s notice before a facility is closed, Church said. The agency Feb. 22 issued a list of 49 FAA towers that were subject to closing in addition to the private towers.

It is truly a shame that the people Americans elected and sent to Washington choose to play games with the budget rather than solve the increasing debt problem in America. The only way we can remedy this is to send people to Washington who are willing to risk not being re-elected in order to do what is necessary to fix the problem. We have some officials in Washington who are trying to fix the budget problem, but obviously we need more.Enhanced by Zemanta