Common sense furloughed
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April 30, 2013 |
By U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador
While Congress last week passed last-minute
legislation to avert the air-traffic controller
furloughs, it appears common sense about
budgeting and saving at the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) was also furloughed.
I voted for this legislation because the FAA
needs to get its spending priorities in order.
Still, I find it hard to believe the FAA could
not have found savings beforehand.
The sequester required the FAA to cut its budget
by $637 million in a more than $15 billion
budget.
It is astounding that a 5% savings at the FAA
was responsible for up to 40% of flight delays
this week. Surely, the FAA could have
reprioritized some funding without bringing our
national aviation system to its knees in the
first place. Just look at this
chart to see how their budget has
increased over the last few years as the number
of daily domestic flights has declined.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, White House
Spokesman Jay Carney responded to the nationwide
flight delays: "Now, if Congress has another
idea about how to alleviate the challenges that
sequester has caused for the FAA and for
American travelers, we are open to looking at
that."
A good place this administration could start for
an "idea" would be questioning the FAA's history
of cost overruns and then looking to trim the
millions it has spent on other things.
Consider this: The FAA will have more money to
spend in 2013 than what the president requested
in his budget. In the last 7 years, the FAA has
spent millions on conferences for its employees.
Infrastructure upgrades have had cost overruns
of roughly $4 billion combined. A March letter
from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation Ranking Member John Thune and
House Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster to
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pointed out
$2.7 billion in non-personnel operations costs.
Quite a number of possible areas ripe for
belt-tightening at the FAA.
Realizing budget cuts were on the horizon since
November 2011, this administration had ample
time to examine the FAA for duplication, waste
and excess and then cut the low priority items.
Families and businesses in this economy have had
to increase their thrift and frugality.
Washington, D.C. must also exercise the common
sense to practice its own. |
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