With unions already
mobilizing, it appears that another FAA shutdown will be
averted, at least until the end of the year:
House Republicans are unveiling another funding extension for the Federal Aviation Administration as early as Friday, this time to Dec. 31, that also includes back pay for federal workers who were furloughed for two weeks in August when lawmakers failed to extend the agency’s funding.
The measure also includes minor cuts to the funding levels of FAA, consistent with agreed-upon deficit reduction agreements and House appropriators’ funding levels. The overall authorization levels reflect roughly a 5 percent reduction from current level, according to congressional and lobbying sources.
Crucially, this extension does not appear to include the provision to strip union rights from airline workers that caused the summer's FAA shutdown. There's still a lot of work to be done to get to a long-term bill, and it's extremely unlikely that Republicans are giving up on their proposal to count people who don't vote in union representation elections as having voted against unionizing, they're not trying to force the issue into another FAA shutdown ... just yet. Maybe they're not eager for a repeat of the damage Rep. John Mica whined about in the wake of the last one.
Imagine that. Democrats refused to cave to Republicans demanding an anti-democratic, anti-worker bill and won at least a short-term victory. Imagine if they did that more often and on more issues.