As Air Traffic Control
Towers Close, FAA Hiring ‘Community Planners’
CNSews.com – Fred Lucas – 3/21/2013
According to the FAA, this
is not a question of spending priorities between control towers and community
planners. That’s because the two are financed through separate funds within the
FAA. Air traffic funding – which funds the towers – is a separate fund from the
airport improvement program that funds community planners. Moreover, the
airport improvement program is exempt from the sequester, according to the FAA.
The FAA declined to answer
specific questions on the matter from CNSNews.com until it responds to
questions from Sen.
Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood on March 6 asking about several spending priorities in the
sequestration, including FAA jobs.
Leaving these six job
openings unfilled would hardly put a dent in the $600 million in savings the
FAA needs to find, but they do amount to the full-time yearly salaries for four
air traffic controllers,” Coburn wrote. “These numbers may not be huge, but
they illustrated an important point: FAA is not doing enough to seek out ways
to save money without affecting their mission.
“While we value the work of
everyone at the FAA, not every employee has duties critical to the immediate
mission of the agency,” Coburn continued. “As such, we should give higher
priority to those performing essential tasks over others who are not. Air
traffic controllers, safety inspectors and technicians should certainly receive
the highest priority.”
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