Congress has approved a bill to end the Federal Aviation Administration furloughs of air traffic controllers on Friday, resolving an issue that had re-ignited debate over federal spending cuts that took effect earlier this year. The decision is expected to end delays for millions of travelers.
The House easily approved the measure Friday on a 361-41 vote. This comes after a late Thursday night vote in the Senate that took place without even a roll call vote.
The Senate legislation, crafted by lawmakers in both parties, would give the Transportation Department, which administers the Federal Aviation Administration, more budget flexibility to reduce the number of air-traffic controller furloughs, which had caused this week's flight delays.
Under the bill, the FAA would be able to redirect as much as $253 million from other areas of its budget to shore up staffing and operations.
The furlough, a temporary unpaid leave of some employees due to special needs of a company, effectively undoes one of the thorniest results of "sequestration," $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that took effect March 1.
The White House said President Obama would sign the bill but condemned the piecemeal approach to alleviating the impact of the sequestration budget cuts. "This is a Band-Aid solution," said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, according to the New York Times. "It does not solve the bigger problem."
The FAA said Wednesday that there had been 1,025 delays on Tuesday attributable to staff shortages and 975 delays from other causes, including weather. On Monday, the first weekday of sequester-level staffing, the agency said there were 1,200 delays because of short staffing and 1,400 because of weather.
