WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tomorrow, April 10, U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), and David Vitter (R-La.) will introduce legislation to prevent the FAA from closing air traffic control towers.
The Protect Our Skies Act, which is co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 18 senators, would prohibit the Department of Transportation (DOT) from closing any air traffic control towers – including those that are operated by the FAA. It comes on the heels of the DOT’s decision to close 149 FAA contract control towers as a result of being targeted for sequestration cuts disproportionate to other agencies, according to the legislators. Last Friday, the DOT announced that it will delay the closings until June 15, due to legal challenges.
To those uninitiated, air traffic control is serious business preventing many mid-air-collisions daily. Wake up Congress you fly, would you let your safety be jeopardized over a few bucks. Get real.
Stop some of this second and third generation welfare. Are welfare payments now the number one priority in this country. It is strange that those who pay the least receive the most benefits. What has happened to impact studies before an action is taken and apparently this administration does not believe that contracts should be honored. Controllers have more of a reason to walk out now than in August, 1981.
Poll the flying public if you think this is not important. Kick the can down the road. Huh.
Some examples of the worst pork laden waste in the country at this point is the continuation of unnecessary, obsolete, or redundant ATS facilities …such as politically established low volume towers, and keeping virtually unused towers open during night “off hours”. If you want them??? …You pay for them. Don’t ask us in GA to pay for them, or ask the general taxpayer. Further, closing these unneeded or redundant facilities, particularly where any residual functions (e.g., IFR clearance pickup or cancellation) could be easily remoted to other facilities with RCOs, and based on comparison with other existing non-tower facilities, would have virtually no adverse effect on safety.