President Obama will meet with congressional leaders Friday at the White House to discuss a way to avoid the fallout of deep spending cuts, amid intensifying warnings that they could affect the daily lives of Americans in a variety of ways.
Obama’s meeting with the top four Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate is scheduled for the day the so-called “sequester” cuts begin to take effect, a point that Republicans emphasized in questioning the administration’s seriousness about stopping the reductions.
Among the sequester’s possible impacts, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration warned Wednesday, are major flight delays and the closure of hundreds of air traffic control towers at smaller airports across the country.
“Flights to major cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco could experience delays, in some instances up to 90 minutes during peak hours, because we’ll have fewer controllers on staff,” FAA administrator Michael P. Huerta said in a speech to an American Bar Association forum in Washington. “And delays in these major airports could ripple across the country.”
Most of the agency’s nearly 47,000 employees would likely be furloughed one day for each two-week pay period until the fiscal year ends in September, Huerta said.
The FAA may also need to eliminate midnight shifts at more than 60 air traffic control towers, Huerta warned. In addition, they could be forced to close many of the 230 air traffic control towers at airports that are less busy, such as those in Boca Raton, Fla., and Joplin, Mo.
“The reality is, what we’re looking at is a series of bad choices, and what we’re trying to do is minimize the impact on the maximum number of travelers,” Huerta said.
Huerta echoed the words of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who last week predicted that the sequester would wreak havoc on air travel across the country.
The union representing air traffic controllers backed that assessment Wednesday, warning in a new report that if the sequester goes ahead, across-the-board spending cuts could create major problems for air travel with “long-lasting consequences.”
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) said in the report that increased delays, higher costs and lags in air-traffic upgrades would be felt by travelers, pilots, airlines, business and the military.
Should the cuts occur as scheduled, travelers would begin to notice the impact in mid-April, according to the NATCA. And if these cuts remain in place, the impact on air travel would be substantial as aviation workers could face hiring freezes and job losses.
“The negative effects on the aviation system made under sequestration could become permanent or be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse once they are implemented,” the report warned.
Weeks of finger-pointing between Republicans and Democrats have not led to an agreement to avoid the cuts. The White House meeting will be the first between Obama and congressional leaders on the issue.
House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are expected to attend.
Obama to meet congressional leaders on ways to avoid sequester impact
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Obama to meet congressional leaders on ways to avoid sequester impact
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