Will Congress ever pass the FAA Bill?

From the National Journal

TRANSPORTATION

FAA Bill Hinges on Labor Dispute, Timing

By Fawn Johnson

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 | 9:30 p.m.

As if Congress wasn’t wrestling with enough issues before the holiday recess, votes on a long-overdue Federal Aviation Administration measure will come down to the wire before a Jan. 31 deadline, when the current extension expires. Neither the House nor the Senate will take up the bill before the end of the year, according to leadership aides in both bodies.

The delay on the FAA bill, which always passes by sweeping bipartisan margins, showcases one of the main reasons that stopgap funding measures now are a steady part of the legislative diet: The big decisions have to be made by congressional leaders, and the leaders’ plates are full with crises that are surfacing next week, not next year. (The FAA, by the way, is operating under its 22nd temporary extension.)

Next year doesn’t leave much time to work something out on the FAA. When Congress convenes in January, there will be just over one week—five legislative days in the House and five to seven days in the Senate—for lawmakers to approve whatever FAA deal is created.

And there is a deal. Sort of. House Transportation and Infrastructure ranking member Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said on Wednesday that the “big four” negotiators of the FAA bill have agreed in principle to all unresolved issues except the most difficult one—a labor provision supported by House Republicans to revoke a National Mediation Board ruling that makes it easier for rail and aviation workers to unionize.

The labor provision is an area of considerable contention, so much so that it will have to be resolved at the highest levels, among House and Senate leaders and the White House. The White House has already threatened to veto any FAA bill that rescinds NMB’s 2010 decision that only workers casting ballots should be counted in elections about whether to unionize. Previously, nonvoting employees were counted as “no” votes, which is different from the rules governing other union elections.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., has proposed an alternative to rescinding the NMB decision—giving nonvoting workers the same status during union decertification elections as in elections to certify unions. Mica’s proposal has the advantage of being neutral about how nonvoters would be treated, but it has received only a tepid response among the other negotiators.

In leadership circles, staffers for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev., have not yet focused on the labor impasse surrounding the FAA bill. But to be fair, that is largely because they are preoccupied with the payroll tax and the looming Dec. 16 expiration date for the current government spending resolution.

Even with Mica’s olive branch, it is difficult to see how Republicans and Democrats will lay down their arms and come to agreement on the NMB language. Republicans have held firm in their belief that NMB was in the wrong when it overturned a decades-old rule that counted nonvoting employees as “no” votes. (Having Obama’s support for the decision merely fuels that fire.) Democrats and a few moderate Republicans counter that the rule should have been overturned a long time ago. There are political considerations as well. The unions have rallied heavily against rescinding the NMB provision.

It’s worth noting that any agreement on the other unresolved issues in the FAA dispute—overall funding levels, long-distance slots at Reagan National Airport, and taxpayer subsidies for rural airports—hinge on the ability of congressional leaders to find a way through the labor impasse. Even though there is substantial middle ground to be mined on those other issues, the “big four” transportation chiefs in the House and Senate won’t put pen to paper about any of their verbal agreements until they are sure they will be part of a final deal.

Until they get the green light from Reid and Boehner, the negotiators have little choice but to wait and hope that their whispered deals will pass muster with their colleagues when they come to the floor. They will have very little time to change them at that point.