Harry Reid: Compromise in hand to reopen FAA

By Karoun Demirjian

Published Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011 | 12:56 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011 | 4:42 p.m.

Just a day after it seemed certain that construction workers slated to work on the new tower rising at McCarran International Airport would be out of work this summer, Congress reached a temporary accord to authorize funding for the Federal Aviation Administration.

That means workers will be back on the job as soon as Monday, and will have work for the duration that Congress is on vacation -- but it’s not a permanent solution.

“This agreement does not resolve the important differences that still remain,” Sen. Harry Reid said as he announced the temporary agreement. “But I believe we should keep Americans working while Congress settles its differences, and this agreement will do exactly that.”

Those differences include uneasy feelings about a program to subsidize rural airports: both the House and Senate passed long-term bills that would slash the subsidies, but in different ways. Either way though, the residents of Ely should beware: the commercial service to their airport is likely to lose at least three-quarters of its federal underwriting.

But the worst fight is bound to be over a provision in the House bill to wind back a recent decision of the National Labor Relations Board, which makes it illegal to count no-shows as “no” votes in union elections. It’s got the support of the House’s Republican majority.

The Senate though, is run by Democrats, who say that the provision is simply a ploy to advance an “anti-worker agenda.”

That fight’s coming in September. But for the next few weeks at least, crisis averted.