On the same day that Congress sent a bipartisan agreement to raise the debt limit to President Obama, lawmakers were unable to bridge a divide over the Federal Aviation Administration, as the House and Senate headed home until after Labor Day.
"We have a crisis on our hands with the FAA," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), as she used a speech on the Senate floor to blast Republicans for "hostage-taking" on the FAA matter, as Democrats accused the GOP of playing partisan politics with the FAA bill.
"I know exactly why we have this crisis," Boxer said. "It's another made-up crisis by the Republicans; this is a Republican shutdown."
"What are we trying to prove, that we're tough guys?" Boxer asked on the Senate floor.
But Republicans fired right back, accusing Democrats of being the ones looking for partisan political gain, as the dispute threatens to cost the feds over $1 billion in uncollected airline ticket taxes in coming weeks.
"Apparently, protecting outrageous airline ticket subsidies is more important than putting 4,000 furloughed FAA employees and thousands of airport construction workers across the country back to work," said Rep. John Mica (R-FL).
It was Mica, as Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, who set this fight in motion, as he included extra language in a short-term FAA extension bill to eliminate airline ticket subsidies of more than $1,000 per passenger at three airports.
Those subsidies are part of what's known as the "Essential Air Service," which is a program that subsidizes the cost of airline tickets at smaller airports, to help them survive economically.
Democrats though cast the dispute not as one that is about cost-cutting, but one that involves efforts by the GOP to overturn a National Mediation Board labor provision dealing with unionization efforts by airline workers.
"From day one, House GOP leaders admitted openly—almost proudly—that they were doing this to gain ‘leverage’ toward a larger goal—undermining worker rights," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed the finger of blame squarely at Delta Airlines, saying Delta is using this dispute to try to overturn the labor rule.
But, if you look at the short-term extension legislation approved by the House two weeks ago, there is no language dealing with the labor issue - just the airline ticket subsidy issue mentioned above.
Here is the text of that bill, which was never voted on by the Senate - Section 6 deals with "Essential Air Service Reform."
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If you can find the provision dealing with unions and airline workers in the above text, let me know, because I didn't see it. The labor issue has been an issue with the longer-term extension of the FAA bill, but was not included by the House in this short term extension into September, a bill which the Senate never considered.
And so, now the Congress is gone for five weeks. Both the House and Senate will be holding short "pro-forma" sessions every few days, so it is possible for some kind of deal to be struck in the interim.
But as of right now, the gloves are off - as Democrats will hold a news conference today in the Senate to denounce Republicans, accusing them of endangering jobs and the economy with this impasse.
Republicans return the favor and say that it's Democrats who are at fault, as both sides blocked legislation from both sides in the Senate on Tuesday.
Regardless of who you blame, the Congress left town three days early for their summer break, opting for finger pointing instead of legislating on the FAA partial shutdown.
And they're not back until September 6 and 7.
One last note - at one point on Tuesday, Sen. Reid said he was ready to give in and approve the House bill. But while that was his update for reporters around 2pm, by 7pm, he had decided on a different course.
Reid will hold a news conference with other Democrats today on the dispute, which is certain to gather a lot of attention while Congress is out of session over the next five weeks.
