Democrats' last-minute attempt to reopen FAA fails

For much of Tuesday afternoon, reports were back and forth about the possibility of a last-minute FAA reauthorization, before winding up where we started: The FAA will remain partially shut down into September.

Monday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller proposed a bill that actually would have cut the rural subsidies that Republicans claimed the shutdown centered on. That attempt was blocked by Republicans.

With House Republicans determined to start their August recess, the one chance to reopen the agency and put tens of thousands of people back to work was for the Senate to pass the House's short-term re-authorization, which includes politically motivated cuts to rural air service in the home states of key Democrats. Harry Reid appeared poised to accept that, but, according to one report other Senate Democrats would not accept the terms while according to another, a deal with House Republicans fell through.

After the possibilities for re-authorization didn't come through, Reid said,

"The House has tried to make this a battle over essential air service," he says. "It's not a battle over essential air service. It's a battle over Delta Airlines, who refuses to allow votes under the new rules that have been passed by the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board]."

By refusing to accept Democrats' willingness to make EAS cuts but in a form different from the one House Republicans had demanded, and by refusing to stay in town and work on the issue, Republicans showed their hand. Again. They left Democrats once again with the choice between immediate economic harm and capitulation that would set the stage for further showdowns and further capitulation. It's a brutal choice; this time, Democrats switched things up and didn't capitulate.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/fJtxIvzYcNg/-Democrats-last-minute-attempt-to-reopen-FAA-fails

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