Meeting problems

Two months ago we criticized Congress for fiddling while the nation’s airways broke down.

Since then, everyone has learned of regulators clearing jets for takeoff without mandatory safety inspections. Thousands of flights have been canceled after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cracked down this month with additional safety inspections, causing severe disruptions to travelers and business.

Four smaller airlines have filed for bankruptcy protection since we last wrote, and this week Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines announced a merger that is provoking more fears about delays to summer travel.

Legislation reauthorizing the FAA, meanwhile, remains stuck, and this week The Hill reported that the two Senate Democrats most responsible for the impasse have yet even to meet.

Staff for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (Mont.) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.) have discussed the FAA reauthorization bill, but not the two powerful lawmakers. The bill also includes new safety standards and a passengers’ bill of rights meant to ensure airlines cannot keep passengers on the tarmac without food or water for hours on end.

Both Baucus and Rockefeller are tall, white men over the usual retirement age of 65, so it’s understandable if newcomers to the nation’s most exclusive debating club mistake one for the other.

But Baucus and Rockefeller, who have served together for decades, should recognize each other.

In case they need a reminder, Rockefeller sits immediately to Baucus’s right on the powerful Finance panel. It shouldn’t be too tough for the two to have coffee. The West Virginian’s office is number 531 in the Hart Senate Office Building, a skip and a jump from Baucus’s office at 511.

The impasse is over how to pay for the FAA’s modernization, and lobbies for the commercial airlines, business jets and other general aviation users also should share blame.

The smaller fliers are adamant that no system charging planes for the use of the air traffic system should be implemented. This would increase the costs of flying and push too much of the costs onto their shoulders, they say. Commercial airlines say they already pay more than their fair share and need a break.  

Rockefeller’s FAA bill would institute some user fees, while Baucus’s would not. Instead, his bill increases gas taxes on all types of aviation.

Even if the differences over how to pay for the modernization prove insurmountable, it’s possible parts of the broader bill could be broken off and moved this year. The House has already passed an FAA reauthorization bill.

Let’s hope the two key senators will have become better acquainted by the next time we write about the FAA — and that we’ll be able to comment favorably about movement rather than inaction.