Posted on March - 29 - 2010
Aviation bill containing controversial Fed Ex provision won’t be completed by March 31 deadline
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WASHINGTON — Passage of an aviation bill with a controversial provision that would make it easier for FedEx Express employees to form unions won’t be completed by the March 31 deadline and the existing law will have to be extended another three months, a House Transportation Committee official confirmed Tuesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration bill, which has received temporary extensions since it expired in 2007, will get another 90-day extension while the Senate and House negotiate wrestling the new measure through both houses. Work will continue on the new reauthorization and could pass before the new June 30 deadline.
“It’s better than nothing,” said Memphis International Airport president and CEO Larry Cox. “I would have preferred six months…but this is what I expected.” He said he knew there are a lot of problems reconciling the bills.
The postponement comes in part because of a lack of resolution on the FedEx labor matter and other safety issues and in part because the Congress is currently swamped with an imminent attempt to pass a health reform bill. Congress is in recess after next week.
“We hope that after this extension passes, both chambers can quickly move to pass final FAA reauthorization legislation to improve passenger and air safety, implement space-based navigational technology, and increase funding for airport improvement projects across the country,” FedEx spokesman Maury S. Lane said Tuesday. “This is an important bill that should advance without extraneous labor provisions and we believe UPS should abandon its bailout quest, which puts UPS’s interests ahead of the public.”
FedEx has been engaged in a major public relations campaign aimed at characterizing the proposed change in the labor law a “Brown bailout” for its larger rival.
Last week, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., lifted his hold on the Senate bill when it appeared likely that the controversial House language, changing the labor law jurisdiction for certain FedEx Express workers who don’t require FAA certification, would not be in a final bill.
However, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., said through a spokesman that he was unlikely to back away from the provision he championed.
On Tuesday, his spokesman, Jim Berard, confirmed that a bill extending the current laws to June 30 is being drawn up and will be introduced on the House floor on Thursday.
Berard said Oberstar would have preferred finishing the new FAA reauthorization bill, which includes major upgrades for air traffic control and navigation as well as increased funding for major airport improvement projects across the country. The bill the House will consider Thursday also tweaks unrelated highway spending formulas.
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