Main Street

Good News and Bad News This Week in Congress

First, the good news: Congress averted a real threat to over 80,000 jobs by passing a bill extending funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and for transportation projects last night.

The Senate’s ability to pass the bill by today’s deadline was thrown into doubt by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who put a hold on the bill over a provision in the highway funding. The result of killing the bill would have been another FAA shutdown like the one this summer that cost taxpayers millions and furloughed thousands of workers for two weeks.

Freed from Coburn’s threat, the bill passed by a 96-2 margin. As too often happens in the Senate, broadly popular policy was put at risk by procedural shenanigans and showmanship.

For the people whose jobs were at stake here, this passage is good news—for now. Transportation funding will be extended through March, while FAA funding will be extended through January. Congress is divided over longer-term bills for both of these priorities, and passing them next year in a version that protects workers and jobs won’t be an easy fight.

Unfortunately, the news out of Congress isn’t all good. Yesterday the U.S. House passed a bill designed to cripple the National Labor Relations Board and prevent it from enforcing laws protecting employees. Arguing against the bill, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) aptly noted that it would empower companies to outsource and retaliate against employees that exercise their rights. The bill passed on a mostly party-line vote of 236-186.

This isn’t serious policy aimed at creating jobs. It’s a transparent attempt to tilt the playing field away from working people and even further towards corporations. The Senate is not expected to take up the anti-NLRB bill, but it shows the priorities of House leaders.

No wonder the thousands of people we talk to at the door every week are feeling buyer’s remorse over the new House majority.