Hudson: "The solution is quite simple"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 26, 2013

Hudson: “The solution is quite simple”
Time to End the FAA’s Political Games

WASHINGTON-Today the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that provides the Secretary of Transportation full authority to access funds to prevent the FAA furloughs and contract tower closures. The House took up the Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013, less than 24 hours after the Senate passed the same measure.

“Much like the FAA’s decision to close local control towers, the furloughs are a manufactured problem meant to inflict as much pain as possible on the American public so they oppose any efforts by Congress to control Washington’s reckless spending habits,” said Hudson. “I don’t understand why the Obama Administration has been allowed to get away with playing political games with the sequester—it’s about prioritizing spending, that’s it. There is no reason to allow sequestration to cripple our economy when the solution to the pain we are feeling is quite simple.”

Under this legislation, the FAA gains authority to transfer up to $253 million from accounts that are flush into other programs to prevent staff furloughs and reduced operations through the end of the fiscal year. In addition tofurlough prevention, the available funds should also prevent the closure of local airport control towers.

Rep. Hudson spoke on the House floor today in support of H.R. 1765, the Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013. Below is a transcript of his remarks:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, for this Administration, the term sequestration has become synonymous with fear.

I’ve been extremely disappointed that the FAA chose to close the contract control towers in 149 airports in this country, including my hometown of Concord, North Carolina.

This airport is the third busiest airport in North Carolina. It was named by the Government Accountability Office as an airport of national significance because it’s a reliever airport for Charlotte Douglas, which is the sixth busiest airport in the world.

The decision to close these towers at a savings of $50 million is hard to understand when you consider the fact that the FAA requested $15.1 billion for fiscal year 2013 and through sequester is actually receiving $15.9 billion—an actual increase over the amount of money the FAA said they needed to operate. I can only conclude that their goal here is to try to make sequester cuts as painful as possible for the American people

I support this bill because it ends the political games by giving the Secretary the flexibility that he needs to keep these contract towers open. And so I would encourage the Secretary to do that for the safety and for the economy of our local communities.

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