Despite an appeal from President Obama, the Senate recessed without funding the Federal Aviation Administration, leaving nearly 4,000 "nonessential" workers on unpaid furlough and other "essential" employees on the job without pay at least through Labor Day.
Airport safety inspectors, who enforce compliance with federal rules and are considered essential, have been asked to keep working and put expenses on personal credit cards. But the FAA insisted that safety is not affected because air traffic controllers, who are paid with separate funds, remain on the job.
Obama called Congress' failure to resolve the situation "another Washington-inflicted wound on America."
The standoff also is costing the government money. Without an FAA funding bill, airlines are not required to turn over ticket taxes, which add up to $250 million a week. A month without those taxes costs the U.S. $1 billion.
The FAA's funding authority expired in 2007, forcing the agency to get by on a succession of temporary extensions. In all, 20 extensions have been passed while Democrats and Republicans attempted to hammer out a deal over other facets of the bill. The most recent extension expired more than a week ago.
The House approved a temporary extension in mid-July, but added a rider that would eliminate subsidies to 13 rural airports — including in home states of key senators. One airport in Nevada — home to Majority Leader Harry Reid — receives subsidies of more than $3,500 per passenger. Because of the rider, the Senate refused to pass the extension.
The subsidy issue may be a bargaining chip, however. In the background is another point of contention: Republicans want to make it harder for air and rail employees to unionize. Eliminating rural airport subsidies dear to several key senators was seen as a pressure tactic to achieve that goal.
Republicans want to overturn a National Mediation Board rule that allows airline and railroad employees to form a union by a simple majority of those voting. Republicans want those who don't vote to count as "no" votes.
Leaders in the House of Representatives objected to a provision supported in the Senate bill that would allow airline and railroad employees to form a union by a simple majority of those voting. Instead, they wanted to count those who didn't vote as voting "no."
Also, the House bill would eliminate $16.5 million in air subsidies to several rural communities where the subsidy amounts to more than $1,000 per passenger.
The cuts to the Essential Air Service program wouldn't affect upstate New York cities that depend on the subsidies for scheduled air service.
Meanwhile, 4,000 FAA employees remain idled due to a lack of funding from Congress, and more than 200 airport projects employing an estimated 70,000 construction workers have been halted.
The partial shutdown, which began July 22, is costing the U.S. Treasury about $30 million a day in uncollected ticket taxes. Airlines at first stopped collecting them, resulting in a temporary drop in ticket prices, but quickly raised prices to offset the tax savings to consumers.
The money is now flowing to airline coffers. By September, more than $1 billion will have been lost to the U.S. Treasury.
"Every week it's not reauthorized creates mounting problems for our local economy," U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday evening. "While it's not a safety problem, because controllers are in their towers, it's a major jobs problem at a time when we need to do everything in our power to keep New Yorkers in their jobs and put people back to work."
In New York state, 127 FAA employees have been furloughed, said spokeswoman Arlene Salac, most of them at FAA offices in Queens and elsewhere on Long Island. Three employees, in Ithaca, Rome and Syracuse, were also furloughed, although no one was laid off in the Capital Region.
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