After pulling together a last minute debt limit deal to avoid economic calamity, Congress has packed its bags and headed home for summer recess – neglecting to extend funding to the FAA and leaving 4,000 FAA employees without pay. The Washington Post also reports the impact the FAA shutdown will have on those traveling this summer, as the FAA shutdown put a halt to various construction and revenue projects, and decreases in airport personnel.
A last-minute Obama administration effort to get the Senate to accept a funding extension that would have returned 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration employees and about 70,000 others to work failed Tuesday as Congress headed home until September.
With House members already departed and senators packing their bags for the summer recess, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pressed hard in a final round of meetings and calls with Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and other key senators.
LaHood implored them to accept a funding extension sent over by the House that contained provisions some senators found unpalatable, but he told them it was the only avenue left that would return people to work and avert the lost of $1.2 billion in ticket tax revenue.
Congress Heads Home Without Extending FAA Funding
How can the FAA shutdown come to an end? How does Congress leaving for recess make you feel?
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