FAA Shutdown Stalemate

UPDATE:  The Next roll call vote in the Senate will be September 6th.  The August recess has begun, without resolution on the FAA authorization bill.

With the Debt limit solved for now, it’s on to the next stalemate on Capitol Hill.  This one is causing a partial shutdown at the Federal Aviation Administration.  Is a solution within reach? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is hinting there may be a compromise on the horizon.

FOX News Radio’s Jared Halpern reports from Washington:

Editor’s Note:

A notice put out on the FAA employee website from the Air Traffic Organization COO David Grizzle obtained by Fox News Radio raises safety concerns as the furlough drags on.

He warns: 

“The effects of our partial shutdown are not diminishing.  In fact, they are growing and becoming more numerous as time passes and functions where we might have been able to withstand their being discontinued for a few days begin to be terribly disruptive and possibly even have a safety impact when stopped for longer periods of time.”  He warns that some furloughed employees may have to be called back in due to safety concerns, “…we’re watching for safety impacts very carefully, and, in that connection, you may hear about some people being called back to work because we determined that their work – or rather, their not doing their work – had begun to have a safety impact.”   

Update:

The FAA Tells FOX News Radio:

An FAA Official tells FOX News Radio that this note references construction sites at ATC facilities.   They say that due to the abrupt nature of the shutdown, many of these sites were left in a haphazard state.  They say that the comments about calling some FAA employees back deals with officials who oversee these projects who would be needed to secure the sites.   They maintain this is NO safety issue with the traveling public. “There is not a safety issue here in that respect.”   They insist travel safety is being “maintained and upheld.”