Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced on Aug. 4 that Democratic and Republican leaders were able to produce a bipartisan compromise between the House of Representatives and the Senate. Details of the agreement were not yet released.
“This agreement does not resolve the important differences that still remain,” Reid said in a statement. “But I believe we should keep Americans working while Congress settles its differences, and this agreement will do exactly that.”
The move is expected to send thousands of aviation workers back to the trenches and will allow construction projects across the country to resume.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has been urging Congress to reach an agreement for days, and applauded the news from Reid.
“This is a tremendous victory for American workers everywhere,” he said. “From construction workers to our FAA employees, they will have the security of knowing they are going to go back to work and get a paycheck—and that is what we have been fighting for.”
Since the FAA had been unable to collect on federal taxes on airline tickets, the country was losing $30 million a day. If an agreement had not been reached until after the August Congressional recess, the total loss in revenue stood at over $1 billion.
