What’s “Silly” In Washington This Week

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Military Would Take Control Of ATC?…

While the U.S. Senate mulls over how to deal with the contentious FAA reauthorization bill now in its lap, a House panel is ready to look at a way to avoid all this brouhaha over privatization in the future: take Air Traffic Control away from the FAA, and give it to the Department of Defense. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, is hosting a hearing today to explore the proposal. John Carr, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, called the whole idea “silly” and declined to waste his time testifying at Mica’s meeting. “We would rather not meddle with the chairman’s misguided military musings,” Carr said in a news release Monday. “NATCA is more than willing to testify when the subject matter is serious,” Carr said. “But … this hearing is clearly a partisan stunt designed to threaten, intimidate and silence opposition. No one we have talked to in Washington views this hearing as anything but a bad joke. … Our military is deployed in critical operations around the world and a subcommittee chairman now wants to use the military as a pawn in this political game-playing.” If ATC were to become a military function, it would mean the end of union representation.

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