WASHINGTON, D.C.—Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV today released the following statement after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced plans to furlough air traffic controllers while implementing sequestration, resulting in thousands of delayed flights and potentially hundreds of cancelled flights on a daily basis.

“The indiscriminate across-the-board budget cuts required by sequestration did not need to happen. Because House Republicans refused to work with the Senate and the President to prevent these indiscriminate reductions, the FAA now faces difficult and unfortunately unavoidable choices.  

“The FAA Administrator needs to take every action to minimize the impact of these cuts on the travelling public.  I am deeply disappointed that the agency has failed to inform the public on how dramatically their travel plans will be impacted in the days and weeks ahead. The FAA immediately needs to do substantially more to explain the impact of sequestration on the travelling public. I will continue to press the agency to provide this critical information.”

###