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Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Morgantown as the capital of West Virginia.

WASHINGTON — For seven years, Congress has been unable to pass a multi-year Federal Aviation Administration bill because of extraneous labor issues that are central to business interests in Memphis. Since Saturday, such an impasse has shut down the agency.

First it was a Democratic proposal that would have made it easier for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to organize FedEx Express employees that don’t require certification by the FAA, such as delivery drivers. That issue disappeared after its primary proponent, House Transportationmittee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., lost his bid for re-election in the Republican takeover of the House last November.

This time around, it’s a Republican effort, pushed by Delta Air Lines, to undo a National Mediation Board rule finalized last year that stopped the counting of non-votes as “no” votes in aviation union representation elections. Despite the rule change, Delta management has beaten back recent union efforts, including a disputed election lost by the American Flight Attendants last November.

Proponents of the NMB rule change, such as Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., whosemercemittee is writing the FAA law, took to the floor for the second day in a row this morning to condemn the House Republicans’ effort as an “un-American and unprecedented” gift to Delta Air Lines.

Rockefeller also made it personal, citing Delta CEO Richard Anderson’s $9 million salary. “I wish I understood why the policy objections of onepany — Delta Air Lines — mattered more than the livelihoods of thousands of people,” Rockefeller said. The FAA has furloughed 4,000 employees.

The impasse has taken two tracks. The first: The House and Senate needed to pass a 21st temporary extension of the FAA bill by last Friday at midnight or the agency was required to close. The House bill contained language that ended Essential Air Service subsidies to 13 rural airports, including those in Jonesboro, Ark., and Jackson, Tenn.

But it also cut those subsidies to the Ely, Nevada, airport in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home state; Glendive, Mont., in Financemittee Chairman Max Baucus’ home state; and in Morgantown, W.Va. The Senate wouldn’t agree to the cuts, and the FAA was forced into a partial shutdown.

“This is not policy, it is pettiness,” Rockefeller said Wednesday night in urging passage of an extension without the EAS sideshow.

“The House Republicans freely admit that this is simply an effort to leverage one issue (EAS subsidies) to hijack the legislative process and gain the upper hand on negotiating an anti-labor provision,” Rockefeller said on the Senate floor this morning.

He noted that the effort to save $16 million a year by ending subsidies to the 13 airports has already cost $150 million in uncollected fuel and other taxes in less than a week.

Airlines have been getting a windfall by raising ticket prices to reflect what passengers would have paid had the taxes been collected.

Rockefeller and aviation sumittee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., wrote to each of the CEOs of the 12 largest airlines this afternoon asking them to “confirm whether yourpany is one of the airlines generating profits by exploiting its own customers” by using the uncollected tax as an opportunity to raise prices.

House Transportationmittee Chairman John L. Mica, R-Fla., advocates the cuts in EAS subsidies on public policy grounds. He says taxpayers should not have to pay $3,720 per passenger traveling to Ely, Nevada, nor should they underwrite travel from rural airports within 90 miles of a large or medium hub airport.

The second impasse is over the longer-term bill, where less-draconian cuts to Essential Air Service are being negotiated, despite the House leadership so far refusing to name conferees to reconcile the Senate and House bills. There, the union vote language is the sticking point.

Historically, union elections in the transportation industry overseen by the NMB have counted no-show voters as “no” votes, making management efforts to suppress voting a winning strategy. With the rule change, the winner of the most votes wins.

Delta CEO Anderson is adamant that the NMB rule be overturned. In response to a request from Themercial Appeal, Atlanta-based spokesman Gina Laughlin said, “We disagree with the senator’sments. … Delta appreciates the service of Senator Rockefeller and remains hopeful that he can lead the Senate to work out its differences with the House and reach agreement on a long-term FAA reauthorization.”

Delta announced earlier this month it plans to discontinue service to 24 small markets, including Tupelo, Hattiesburg and Greenville in Mississippi and Muscle Shoals, Ala.

In interviews, Anderson has said there’s no reason to have unions at hispany, newly merged with heavily unionized Northwest. He noted that hispany has been able to win certification votes despite NMB rule change. But he is critical that it was implemented by what he has called “two AFL-CIO appointees” on the three-member board. And he has called the NMB “essentially an arm of the AFL-CIO.”

He was referring to chairman Linda A. Puchala, an Obama appointment and former president of the Association of Flight Attendants, and Harry Hoglander, a former executive vice president of the Air Line Pilots Association.

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