The Congress made no headway on Monday to resolve a legislative dispute that has caused a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, resulting in the furlough of around 4,000 employees in 35 states and Washington, D.C.

Democrats in the Senate again urged Republicans in the House to drop a series of provisions from an FAA re-authorization bill, but GOP leaders showed little interest in doing that, as a verbal rebuke from the Transportation Secretary barely moved the meter on Capitol Hill.

Here was the statement from Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who is the Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, which indicated little change on Monday:

“To put people back to work and restart FAA programs, the Senate needs to adopt the FAA extension passed by the House last Wednesday. 

 

“If the Senate cannot agree to a simple provision, which it approved earlier this year, to eliminate excessive subsidies between $1,358 and $3,720 per ticket at three airports, then we don’t need to convene a conference meeting. 

 

“Those 4,000 FAA employees have been furloughed so some in the Senate can protect their own political pork with airline ticket subsidies of more than $3,700 per passenger.  For example, subsidies are this exorbitant in Ely, Nevada for each of the 471 passengers flying in and out of the airport each year.

 

“I stand ready and committed to work with the Senate and all parties on an FAA bill, but the only way to get FAA employees back to work immediately is for the Senate to act now."

As I've said on the air, this little battle over the FAA certainly echoes the much larger fight over the debt limit, as both parties are dug in and seemingly unmoved by the loss of tax revenue on the sale of new airline tickets.