Heinrich Statement On End Of FAA Shutdown

Statement

U.S. Representative Martin Heinrich (NM-1) today released the following statement after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced, subject to Senate approval, a proposal to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA):

"I'm pleased that this agreement will allow FAA employees to get a paycheck again, and construction workers in my district can get back to work," said Rep. Heinrich who on August 1, 2011, called on Chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure John Mica and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Aviation Thomas Petri to quickly pass a clean FAA reauthorization.

"This is a step in the right direction; however, it is clear that good-paying jobs in our community will be the casualty if Republicans in Congress continue to play politics with our fragile economic recovery. The failure to reach an agreement on this routine extension has gravely impacted central New Mexico, including the halting of the $10 million apron replacement project at the Albuquerque International Sunport, which is unacceptable."

In the past, Congress has extended the FAA's authorization 20 separate times without controversy. Earlier this year, the House and Senate both approved comprehensive FAA reauthorization bills. In February, the Senate passed S. 223, the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act, by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 87 to 8. Passage of the Senate bill was widely applauded by both labor and industry stakeholders, and it was estimated that the bill would create at least 150,000 jobs.

By contrast, in April, the House Republicans passed the extremely controversial H.R. 658, the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011, by a party-line vote of 223 to 196 -- the narrowest vote margin for House passage of an FAA reauthorization bill in more than three decades.

On April 7, 2011, the Senate requested the House meet in a conference committee to resolve the differences between the House- and Senate-passed long-term FAA reauthorization bills. More than 100 days later, the House has taken no action to agree to a conference, despite claims by Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) that such differences could be resolved "in 20 minutes."

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