As weary travelers endure flight cancellations and
delays because of furloughed air traffic controllers, the White House signaled
Wednesday that it might consider legislation that would give the Obama
administration more flexibility over cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration
budget while leaving the rest of the $85 billion in sequester cuts in place.
Democrats have resisted attempts to provide the administration with flexibility,
saying that any cuts would be painful and that forcing President Barack Obama to
decide where to slice would only set him up for blame.
Pressure increased after at least 5,800 flights were delayed in a three-day span
beginning Sunday when FAA furloughs took effect. The National Air Traffic
Controllers Association said that compares with 2,500 delays for the same period
a year ago.
Republicans on Wednesday accused the White House of manufacturing the air travel
crisis for political gain. They said the administration could have prevented the
furloughs but is purposely making painful cuts in order to inspire public
support for increased spending.
"This recent round of furloughs is driven, not by the necessity of budget cuts,
but political calculation and sheer incompetence along with the administration's
desire to apparently maximize the pain on American taxpayers," said Sen. John
Cornyn, R-Texas. "It boggles the mind."
He said he supports allowing more flexibility that would allow the FAA to "take
another look at [its] budget. Look at those piles of money that might be
available to move around and avoid the furloughs and avoid the inconvenience ...
to the air-traveling public."
White House spokesman Jay Carney agreed that allowing flexibility within only
the FAA cuts "would be a Band-Aid measure" that would not fix other "negative
effects of the sequester: the kids kicked off of Head Start, the seniors who
aren't getting Meals on Wheels, and the up to three-quarter of a million of
Americans who will lose their jobs or will not have jobs created for them."
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Republican Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and James
Inhofe of Oklahoma reintroduced their plan to allow the president flexibility
over all areas of the sequester.
"Let's give the president maximum flexibility," Mr. Toomey said. "The fact is,
especially in a government that has grown this big, we can find the little tiny
savings that are required in the sequester so that we don't have to do it in a
disruptive way."
He said the White House rejected that flexibility and previously threatened to
veto any bill that would have provided it.
Officials estimate that the FAA furloughs will save slightly more than $200
million through Sept. 30, a small fraction of the $85 billion in overall
reductions that stem from across-the-board cuts, known as the sequester, that
took effect in March.
Senate Democrats prefer to address all of the sequester cuts rather than look at
departments one by one.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Wednesday advocated
backfilling the sequester cuts with money from the overseas contingency
operations account, which has a balance of about $600 billion. The funds, which
are meant to be used in times of war, aren't needed because troops are returning
from Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
