Rockefeller Tells Boehner to Appoint FAA Conferees - Prevent Another FAA Shutdown
Six Senators send letter to House Speaker on FAA Issue
August 9, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Democratic Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) sent a letter today to Speaker John Boehner asking him to appoint conferees to devise a bipartisan, long-term solution to keep the 74,000 air travel, construction and contract workers employed when the current extension expires on September 16th.
“Public statements from you and Chairman John Mica say that you are ‘willing to use every tool at your disposal’ to negotiate a final FAA bill, yet one tool you have so far been unwilling to use is the normal legislative process,” the Senators wrote. “More than 120 days ago, a bipartisan group of Senators was appointed to the conference committee between the Senate and House FAA bills. These Senators are eager to negotiate in earnest, but their House counterparts have not been named more than 4 months after the House passed their FAA bill.”
The senators urged Speaker Boehner to avoid political brinksmanship that led 74,000 American workers to be furloughed for two weeks at the end of July, pointing out that “the lack of conferees from the House is the main obstacle standing in the way of Congress’ ability to produce a bipartisan, long-term, extension of the FAA.”
Full text of the letter is below.
August 9, 2011
The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker
US House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Speaker:
Today, more than 74,000 workers are back on the job after the Senate resolved the impasse over the latest extension for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). With the latest FAA extension set to expire on September 16, I am writing to urge you to appoint conferees from the House so that serious negotiations may begin.
Congress last passed an FAA reauthorization bill more than four and a half years ago. As one of our first actions in the 112th Congress, the Senate approved a bipartisan FAA reauthorization bill in February that could create or save more than 280,000 jobs at a time when our economy needs jobs the most. We were pleased that the House also passed their FAA bill in April, although there are key differences with the Senate bill. Action on a final FAA bill is long overdue, and Congress should not delay any longer to resolve the differences between the Senate and House bills.
Public statements from you and Chairman John Mica say that you are “willing to use every tool at your disposal” to negotiate a final FAA bill, yet one tool you have so far been unwilling to use is the normal legislative process. More than 120 days ago, a bipartisan group of Senators was appointed to the conference committee between the Senate and House FAA bills. These Senators are eager to negotiate in earnest, but their House counterparts have not been named more than 4 months after the House passed their FAA bill. The lack of conferees from the House is the main obstacle standing in the way of Congress’ ability to produce a bipartisan, long-term, extension of the FAA.
With another deadline for an FAA extension looming in just a few short weeks, we encourage you to use your authority to appoint House conferees during the pro-forma session so that we may resolve our issues and put Americans back to work.
We look forward to working with you over the next few weeks to develop a bipartisan, multi-year reauthorization for the FAA. American workers are back on the job and they are counting on Congress to do ours. We should not fail them.
Sincerely,
HARRY REID MAX BAUCUS
United States Senator United States Senator
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV BARBARA BOXER
United States Senator United States Senator
MARIA CANTWELL BILL NELSON
United States Senator United States Senator
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