U.S. congressional leaders agreed August 4 to a temporary funding extension of the FAA, ending a two-week standoff that forced the agency to furlough 4,000 employees and stop work on 219 airport construction projects employing some 70,000 workers. The row between the Democrat-controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House of Representatives also cost the government more than $300 million in uncollected federal taxes on airline tickets since the FAA’s operating authority expired on July 23. Delta and US Airways, among other airlines, have announced they will refund passengers for the amount charged in fares they would have otherwised used for taxes during the shutdown.
Long-term FAA reauthorization legislation has stalled since September 2007 over differences in Congress, which before the shutdown had passed 20 short-term funding extensions to keep the agency operating. Although bills from both bodies included cuts to Essential Air Service, a federal program that supports airline service to little-used, mainly rural airports, the House’s bill would completely eliminate the program in the lower 48 states by 2013.
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