The FAA has been funded by 23 short-term funding extensions in the last eight years. Today the Senate is expected to vote on long term FAA funding. (Friday, legislation funding the FAA till 2015 passed the House of Representatives).
A labor compromise stuck in the bill says that no less than 50 percent of airline workers must favor a vote on unionization before that vote can take place. Essentially it repeals a National Mediation Board ruling that absentee votes in union elections are not counted as votes against forming a union.
The House bill cut FAA funding to FY 2008 levels. The compromise bill keeps funding at FY 2011 levels.
No one is saying the bill is perfect, but the extensions are expensive.
