Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood urged lawmakers to pass a bill to put the Federal Aviation Administration back in business and put more than 70,000 construction workers and others back on the job, the AP reports.
Nearly 4,000 FAA employees were temporarily laid off last Friday when Congress couldn’t agree on an extension of the agency’s operating authority due to underlying partisan disputes over labor rights and subsidies for rural communities. Air traffic controllers remained on the job..
that the construction industry is among those suffering from high unemployment.
LaHood said he has been talking to lawmakers from both parties. “We’re right smack dab in the middle of the construction season,” he said. “This is not the time to be laying of 70,000 people.” Read More.