I believe history will show that not only is the 112th Congress the “do nothing” congress, it’s also the most selfish, dumbest, most uneducated in civics, science and policy, congress as well!
Huffington Post
The failure of Congress to authorize a budget for the Federal Aviation Administration has put some 4,000 agency employees and tens of thousands of contractorstemporarily out of work. But even some FAA workers who haven’t been furloughed find themselves in a peculiar financial jam.
Roughly 40 FAA inspectors have been asked to continue working despite the stoppage because their jobs are important for air safety. Yet since Congress hasn’t allocated money to the agency, these employees have to cover their own travel expenses until the shutdown is resolved. Although their wages and expenses will eventually be recouped, these workers will end up covering work-related credit charges — and possibly interest — until funding is freed up.
The inspectors are among the thousands who will suffer the real consequences of congressional deadlock.
“It’s incredibly unfair,” FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. “We can neither pay them nor compensate them” for their expenses until the shutdown ends.
Related articles
- FAA Shutdown Means Workers Must Pay To Work (huffingtonpost.com)
- Aviation workers deal with politics-induced furloughs (money.cnn.com)
- FAA, Construction Workers in Limbo as Lawmakers Prepare to Leave Washington (foxnews.com)
- FAA shutdown continues as Congress leaves for summer recess (nj.com)
- Senate plan to end FAA shutdown falls apart (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- FAA Shutdown Cost Could Exceed $1 Billion (huffingtonpost.com)
- Congress at Impasse Over F.A.A. (nytimes.com)
- FAA Shutdown To Continue In Partisan Standoff (huffingtonpost.com)
This proves that the government is broken, and the two party system is a failure, and should be consigned to the scrap heap.