(Washington, DC) Congresswoman Brown made the following statement:
“Republicans in Washington are playing political games. By failing to compromise with the Senate, they are jeopardizing the safety of airline passengers throughout the United States. We have reached compromise on FAA reauthorization bills 20 times in the past, yet on this instance, because of Rep. Mica and the Republican leadership’s intransigence, we remain at a threatening impasse which will add thousands of hard working Americans to the unemployment line. And once again, the Republican Party is on a suicide mission to destroy well paying transportation related jobs throughout the country.
Indeed, the Republican-led FAA shutdown has caused the FAA to issue 217 stop-work orders on $11 billion worth of air traffic control and safety-related contracts, a number sure to rise if this situation is not quickly resolved. The Republican ‘my way or the highway’ approach to negotiating the future of our Nation’s aviation system has jeopardized nearly 90,000 American jobs, furloughed 3,600 engineers, safety analysts, and aviation experts, and has cost nearly $300 million in lost revenue ($30 million per day). For my state of Florida, this includes over 3000 airport construction jobs lost, and 27 FAA employee jobs: 19 of them at Orlando International Airport, 3 in Miami, 4 in Melbourne and 1 in Hilliard, and a loss of $88 million in airport modernization projects for the state of Florida as a whole.
Because of this impasse, the FAA is unable to move forward on more than $600 million in airport construction projects that include well paying jobs for local communities across the nation. Indeed, this extension has been put into jeopardy chiefly because House Transportation committee chairman, John Mica, unnecessarily inserted language in the FAA extension bill that would curtail a program that provides subsidies to rural airports. Along with Democrats on the Transportation committee, I strongly encourage my Republican colleagues to complete the important work that needs to be done to end this partial shutdown. This situation is yet another example of the Republican Party being entirely ill prepared and completely irresponsible in their attempt to act as House leaders. Beyond a doubt, House Speaker Boehner should call on the committee leadership to produce legislation that can be approved by unanimous consent by the end of the week to end this impasse and put these tens of thousands of airport related employees back to work.”