On a press call this afternoon, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood repeatedly called on Congress to pass a clean, short-term FAA reauthorization to reopen the agency and get 4,000 FAA employees and 70,000 construction workers back to work. Saying that "safety will not be compromised" no matter what, LaHood focused on the jobs issue:
Safety has not been compromised as result of 4,000 layoffs. The traveling public has not been compromised. What has been compromised is people’s jobs.
Back pay for these workers, who have been furloughed for 10 days now, would have to come in the form of an act of Congress. But Republicans are intent on keeping the FAA closed for as long as it takes to strip workers of the right to choose, in a democratic vote, whether to join unions.
Meanwhile, 40 safety inspectors are still on the job without pay or reimbursement for expenses they are incurring to do their job and keep travelers safe:
The 40 inspectors are in charge of regular checks covering runways, navigation aids and other systems at dozens of airports and airlines. A typical inspector may travel to five airports in a two-week period and rack up thousands of dollars in hotel and airline tickets, FAA administrator Randy Babbitt said Monday.
"We're asking for them to put the balance on their credit cards," Babbitt said Monday. "It's not right to ask them to do that, it's just not."
Asked what is happening to construction workers who had been working projects that are now on hold, LaHood answered, "They are stone cold without a paycheck for the last 10 days whether they’re an FAA employee or a construction worker," and pointed out that while many are doubtless looking into unemployment benefits (like the FAA engineer I spoke with last week), there is a waiting period on such programs.
As the debt ceiling fight winds down, for good or ill, presumably the FAA shutdown will move back into the news and onto the congressional agenda. But with the debt ceiling having once again shown Republicans that intransigence, however extremist and damaging, will always pay off for them, it's hard to imagine a good conclusion to this. Which is why you don't give hostage-takers what they want: because they learn that taking hostages pays off, and they do it again.