Senate Dems To Intro Bill Ending FAA Shutdown

Senate Democrats are expected to take on a bill as early as Monday night to end the shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Chairman of the committee that oversees the FAA, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) plans to include cuts in air service subsidies and said it goes one step farther than the House. He plans to use these subsidy cuts as a bargaining chip to draw Democratic support for a labor provision the president has already said he would veto. 

In an email, Rockefeller spokesman Vincent Morris said “the House must stop acting irresponsibility and pass a ‘clean extension’ of funding for the FAA before it adjourns today for the summer.”

“So far the House has displayed a surprisingly sanguine acceptance of the shutdown and has ignored requests that it bring up a clean extension to make things right,” Morris said. “We are hoping that Republicans in the Senate do not object and that if they don’t, the extension could go to the House for approval over there.”