Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) today issued the following statement upon the passage of legislation from the House of Representatives to spare the American people from flight delays caused by the President’s irresponsible management of sequester savings within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA):

“President Obama caused turbulence in airports across the country this week when commercial air traffic was slowed by unnecessary FAA traffic controller furloughs. Make no mistake, furloughs and delays, much like White House closures, were the administration’s choice after it refused to come up with a strategy to implement sequester savings with the least possible harm.  

“The President may have abdicated leadership, but the House and Senate decided to clean up the mess. Our solution, which the President and FAA could have employed all along, directs the agency to find savings in other areas in its budget to replace furloughs and their resulting flight delays.

“Rather than inflicting pain on the American people, President Obama and his FAA should have made the required 4% budget cut by targeting waste. Within the FAA’s budget, there are $2.7 billion in non-personnel costs that should have been scrutinized and seriously trimmed before the President or his Transportation Secretary ever cried ‘doomsday’ or ‘delay.’

“The President’s FAA officials have always had the discretion to reduce such excess and apply savings where it matters. It is a shame they chose to play political games at the expense of the American public instead of implementing these modest cuts responsibly.”

The legislation, which passed the House and Senate with bipartisan support, directs the FAA to transfer funds within its budget to replace the savings enacted by furloughing critical employees.

Since 1996, the FAA’s operating budget has increased nearly 110%. However, since 2000, domestic flights have decreased 27%.  Sequester savings of 4% returns the agency roughly to its 2010 spending level.

Congresswoman Foxx voted twice to replace the sequester in its entirety, but both pieces of legislation were ignored by the Democrat Senate. This week she spoke on the House Floor urging the President and FAA to choose to enact savings from a plethora of non-personnel expenditures within the agency. Footage of her remarks is below.

Foxx: FAA Can Choose Smarter Savings

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