Washington, D.C. - Congressman Dave Loebsack released the following statement today after the House passed the Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013. This bill would give the U.S. Department of Transportation flexibility to transfer $253 million within its accounts to fully fund air traffic controllers, which would effectively end the furloughs of the controllers. Identical legislation has cleared the Senate.
"I am pleased Congress made this commonsense decision to give the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic controllers the flexibility they need to keep our skies safe and reduce flight delays. However, we should never have gotten to this point. This bill does nothing to stop the hard-working men and women at Rock Island Arsenal from being furloughed or Iowa children from being kicked out of Head Start.
"Sequestration is the wrong way to deal with our nation's fiscal challenges, which is why I voted against it in the first place. I have repeatedly called on Congress to come back to the table and replace sequestration in a responsible, balanced fashion that would actually allow us to address our economic needs while more substantially reducing the deficit over the long-term. A piecemeal process like we have seen today is not a solution."
The reduction in funding for air traffic controllers was a result of across the board cuts caused by sequestration. Loebsack has been opposed to these drastic cuts since they were created by the Budget Control Act, which he voted against.
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