Beyond irresponsible...
Well, just heard the fourth trustworthy assessment of chances that Congress will finish work on the bill "reauthorizing" the Federal Aviation Administration. The assessments are in alignment: it ain't happening this year with this Congress -- specifically, with this Senate.
Congrats, lawmakers!! That's two straight Congresses that the FAA has gone without full reauthorization.
That failure means Congress essentially starts all over on the issue come January so a third Congress can get a crack at micromanaging, earmarking and otherwise abusing the process to gain an advantage on some well-funded constituents' wants.
Unconscionable; just unconscionable that a body required by the Constitution to be of adult age seems to lack a majority of adult personalities or adult responsibility. Members of both chambers on both sides of the aisle tried; between working to protect narrow business interests on both sides of the aisle and a general, brainlessly disciplined "Just Say No to Everything!" mentality among the minority party, it's probably a miracle that even the gazillion continuing resolutions got past with the stop-gap money that kept open the doors, towers and centers functioning, and rulemaking continuing at its typical plodding pace.
Guess this is as good an example there is of how "grown-up" doesn't always mean "adult" -- with particular credit to those good folks in the Senate working to protect their contributors' vested interests...gosh knows, they found a way to insinuate their own proclivities about safety and training into the FAA's rulemaking plans.
What a pity they couldn't accomplish as much to make the entire agency more functional and efficient.
But it's still unconscionable that the adults let the children drive the process off the runway end where, in the end, the agency's hopes of a workable, road-map-able authorization might come from two bodies with 535 grown-ups working -- particularly when it takes only one brat among the "upper" chamber known as the Senate to screw it up for the millions who fly or work in aviation.
-- Dave
Congrats, lawmakers!! That's two straight Congresses that the FAA has gone without full reauthorization.
That failure means Congress essentially starts all over on the issue come January so a third Congress can get a crack at micromanaging, earmarking and otherwise abusing the process to gain an advantage on some well-funded constituents' wants.
Unconscionable; just unconscionable that a body required by the Constitution to be of adult age seems to lack a majority of adult personalities or adult responsibility. Members of both chambers on both sides of the aisle tried; between working to protect narrow business interests on both sides of the aisle and a general, brainlessly disciplined "Just Say No to Everything!" mentality among the minority party, it's probably a miracle that even the gazillion continuing resolutions got past with the stop-gap money that kept open the doors, towers and centers functioning, and rulemaking continuing at its typical plodding pace.
Guess this is as good an example there is of how "grown-up" doesn't always mean "adult" -- with particular credit to those good folks in the Senate working to protect their contributors' vested interests...gosh knows, they found a way to insinuate their own proclivities about safety and training into the FAA's rulemaking plans.
What a pity they couldn't accomplish as much to make the entire agency more functional and efficient.
But it's still unconscionable that the adults let the children drive the process off the runway end where, in the end, the agency's hopes of a workable, road-map-able authorization might come from two bodies with 535 grown-ups working -- particularly when it takes only one brat among the "upper" chamber known as the Senate to screw it up for the millions who fly or work in aviation.
-- Dave
posted by Dave Higdon at
3:15 PM
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