Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO Posts Open Letter To Lawmakers

The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, which is made up of a group of 32 unions dealing with all facets of transportation, has posted an open letter to the U.S. Congress urging them to quickly reauthorize the FAA when they return to work next month.

Funding for the agency expires September 30th.

In a post on the "Move America" blog, the TTD says "playing chicken with the funding clock is not the answer."

The unions point out that once Congress returns from their August and Labor Day break, they will have a scant 19 days to get the FAA reauthorization passed and presented to President Obama before current funding expires.

"What we really need is bipartisan, multi-year legislation that expands and modernizes our air traffic control system and aviation infrastructure," the post says.

"We know from painful experience that without a multi-year bill, the FAA will be faced with more patchwork extensions — something lawmakers vowed they would never let happen again after the last fiasco. It took 23 short-term funding extensions over the course of three years and a partial shutdown of the FAA before Congress was able to produce the 2012 FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act.

"That shutdown cost the federal government nearly $30 million a day and created a cascading disaster for air travelers, the aviation industry and FAA employees. Remember forced furloughs, rampant flight delays and dangerous maintenance and repair backlogs? I get a migraine just thinking about it.

"Sadly, adequate funding for the FAA is about more than just avoiding headaches. The political brinksmanship approach to authorizing and funding our FAA does long-term damage to the safety and efficiency of our national aviation network, threatens middle class jobs and hurts our international competitiveness. It has also stunted workforce development and left the FAA with a staffing crisis. Over a third of the agency’s employees are currently eligible for retirement, but there are not nearly enough new hires in training to replace them, and for those who are in the pipeline, it takes between two and five years before they are ready for prime time.

"This makes no sense. How can an agency as complex and important as the FAA be expected to plan for the future of air transportation, develop new technologies and train more qualified professionals when its funding is tied to a series of short-term extensions and the harsh realities of sequestration?

"Maybe Congress can’t see the writing on the wall, but I can — and so can the 12 million employees who work on the front lines every day to keep U.S. air travel the safest in the world," wrote AFL-CIO TTD President Ed Wytkind. "Note to Congress: Our 21st Century aviation system is running on 20th Century technology, and this situation isn’t sustainable for much longer.

"Anemic aviation budgets, stalled spending on maintenance and modernization projects and a resource-starved and under-staffed FAA are hardly reflections of a nation commemorating the wonders of flight."

FMI: http://ttd.org/