Unable to agree on a short term extension of a bill that authorizes the work of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Congress seems ready to go home for an extended summer break without resolving a partial shutdown of the FAA.
"It's not fiscally responsible, and it's not honorable," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), who joined Senators in both parties in blaming Republicans in the House for this dispute that has caught up several thousand government workers.
"The Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has made it clear that House Republicans are willing to shut down the FAA in order to stick it to airline employees," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
The target of Rockefeller's remarks was more than happy to fire right back.
"Senate leadaers choose pork programs over furloughed FAA and airport construction workers," said a release from Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who says the Senate is responsible for this standoff.
"Apparently, protecting outrageous airline ticket subsidies is more important than putting 4,000 furloughed FAA employees and thousands of airport construction workers back to work," said Mica.
Mica had targeted the subsidies, which are part of the Essential Air Service program that helps smaller airports by subsidizing those who buy tickets to fly from those airports.
A bill approved by the House, and never acted on in the Senate, would eliminate subsidies of more than $1,000 per ticket at three different airports - one of them in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
You can imagine how far that went with the Senate leader.
The history behind this dispute is interesting, because 20 times since 1997, the Congress has been unable to agree on a regular bill authorizing the work of the FAA.
So, 20 different times, the Congress has approved a short term authorization. The 21st may not be happening right away, as the House now has no votes until September 7.
The Senate is also leaving town until then later today, raising the specter of Congress going home while a federal agency is unable to legally operate.
An ongoing impasse would also mean the feds could not collect about $1.2 billion in airline ticket taxes over the next five weeks - meaning the lapse in taxing authority would cost much more than the reforms that Mica is trying to force the Senate to accept.
The Senate could still just accept the House bill today and end the partial shutdown, but it doesn't sound like that is really an option.
Your Congress at work.
