FAA

Are Senate Dems About To Cave On GOP Union-Busting?

Brian Beutler | February 6, 2012, 5:20AM

Image from Pushkin/ Shutterstock

Senate Democrats and organized labor have reached a make or break moment over House-passed legislation that will make it harder for transportation workers to unionize.

One labor official said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Commerce Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) had "sold out" workers, by striking a deal with Republicans on a long-term reauthorization of Federal Aviation Administration programs -- and they have a brief window in which to set things right.

The issue goes back months.

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Federal Aviation Administration

Reid Could Accept GOP Terms On FAA Shutdown

Eric Kleefeld | August 2, 2011, 3:44PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Please see update to this story here.

With the debt-ceiling crisis now averted (for now), Congress still hasn't settled a lesser, but still quite important, problem: A partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, which has furloughed thousands of employees and hit the pause button on construction projects.

But fear not, Democrats could be on the verge of resolving the situation in a similar manner as they did the debt ceiling: By accepting Republican conditions.

The issue here is that the Republican-led House, which previously passed an FAA funding bill, is about to go on break again, and thus won't respond to counter-offers from the Democratic Senate. Now, Fox News reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is signaling a willingness to accept the House version of the reauthorization, which includes the elimination of millions in subsidies for rural airline services.

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