FAA Furloughs

jlaOK

It looks like the FAA furloughs are about to end

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/26/house-passes-bill-to-end-faa-furloughs-now-goes-to-obama-to-sign/

While I'm happy that those employees will be back to work, from the furlough post below sounds like there are still a lot more agencies that have furloughs in place. It makes me mad that the FAA can get their furloughs taken care of so quickly just because it has so much of a "public" effect while other agencies still have to wait it out.

EDIT:  formatting

QueSrah

I feel bad for anyone who has to deal with furloughs, but I do think it's the right call for Congress to find money elsewhere to stop the public from being quite so inconvenienced.  (I mean, I have friends at OMB, FDA, and other parts of the alphabet soup, but them being away from their desks for a day won't directly effect and cause a huge inconvenience to thousands of random people.)

itsmevkb

I tend to think that agencies should be able to use their funds as they see fit so long as they are still meeting their mission.  If one year they don't need a couple million for IT improvements then let them use that to cover a personnel budget shortfall.

Having said that, I also wonder why the FAA is different than say the Federal Public Defender offices, many of whom are facing huge budget cuts, lay-offs and furloughs.  Criminal defendants have a right to counsel, it's not optional, and yet sequester is putting that in jeopardy.  Additionally, each of us has a right to access to the courts so why doesn't Congress care about that?

Ms5586

QueSrah:

I feel bad for anyone who has to deal with furloughs, but I do think it's the right call for Congress to find money elsewhere to stop the public from being quite so inconvenienced.  (I mean, I have friends at OMB, FDA, and other parts of the alphabet soup, but them being away from their desks for a day won't directly effect and cause a huge inconvenience to thousands of random people.)

OMG this is fantastic.  I am absolutely using that phrase!  I despise all of our acronyms

QueSrah

itsmevkb:

I tend to think that agencies should be able to use their funds as they see fit so long as they are still meeting their mission.  If one year they don't need a couple million for IT improvements then let them use that to cover a personnel budget shortfall.

Having said that, I also wonder why the FAA is different than say the Federal Public Defender offices, many of whom are facing huge budget cuts, lay-offs and furloughs.  Criminal defendants have a right to counsel, it's not optional, and yet sequester is putting that in jeopardy.  Additionally, each of us has a right to access to the courts so why doesn't Congress care about that?

I suspect Congress isn't being personally affected by the Fed. Public Defender's offices delays, the way they are when then fly to their home districts every week or two and potentially run into delays due to fewer air traffic controllers manning the airports.

Sonadora

Being part of the rest of the "alphabet soup" I think this is awful. The work I do is important too and it blows that I'm being punished for not being at a visible enough place.

It should be all or nothing. All feds furloughed or none, not picking and choosing. The public should be inconvenienced because otherwise, if they just do fixes like this, the public will never complain, never look at who they are electing etc. Sucks to be the people who have to give up 10-20% of their salary, but hey, my flight is still on time, so who cares?

rockychryslerb2010

My H is DoD and furloughs are still a possibility for him.  I'm actually quite p*ssed with Congress.  The one good thing about the FAA furloughs was that it brought attention to the issue.  Congress did nothing for months, years to fix all the underlying budget problems, we were never suppose to get to this point anyway.  The FAA furloughs had a chance to ignite enough public outcry to get more of the general public to put pressure on Congress to make changes.  Sure, I agree budgets need to be cut, but this is the wrong way to do it.  Thank god we will survive a 20% pay cut, I know families where both working parents are impacted, so they are looking at a 40% pay cut.  Furloughing already hired workers with no long term plan is not the way to approach it.  Public sector is going to lose a lot of good people, I know this is pushing many of H's coworkers to make the jump to the private sector.

fryrat

Knowing as many airline employees as I do, I am very glad to see an end to the delays. However, I am not at all happy with the fact that the only reason it was ended was because Congress has a recess coming up. The FAA should have taken a while to re-schedule everything, and make them feel what everyone else is feeling when they try to go home to their families.