be one single elected member of the house of representatives even from the most partisan districts. and they want to say this is somehow fair for working people when they, themselves wouldn t be in congress? we might be better off if we had that rule for congress. i understand why federal officials, so far, have been stressing that safety and security are still assured in our air travel industry despite the fact the faa s shut down, i understand they don t want to spook people and scare people, but do you think there are safety and security implications of this shut down? well, there certainly are 40 airport inspectors have lost their jobs and their federal travel privileges. they are being asked to use their credit cards to fly around the country and inspect violations or potential violations and problems at airports and pay for their own lodging and everything else. how long can they keep that up? a month would be pretty tough on the type of salary these men and
and a lot of things between the obama administration and republicans in congress. republicans say the obama administration should not have unit laterally changed these rules, without the approval of congress. and, democrats believe the president had the right to do that. bill: now, is it cheaper to fly because of this? we mentioned the airline pact. is that still being collected or has it been waived. let s say it should be cheaper to fly because the faa is no longer authorized to collect the airline tax, and, therefore, airline ticket prices should be going down, a number of airlines kept their prices the same. pocketed the difference, and, there is a fight about, will that be reimbursed once the reauthorization takes place. bill: ultimately, is it less safe to fly? is anyone making the argument, with 4,000 workers furloughed? well the secretary of labor, ray lahood said it is safe to fly, and, air traffic controllers are being paid, they are on the job, and plane inspectors are b
and dozens of airport inspectors are being asked to work for free. i m joined by former investigator at the national transportation safety board. greg, this stalemate could continue all the way through labor day, which means the government would lose roughly about a billion dollars on tax revenues on airline ticket sales. explain to everybody out there that s just getting hooked in on this, how catastrophic is this scenario to the faa s future and airline travel for the country as a whole? well i think when you look at the 4,000 quote noninitial employees at the faa what don t have a job, they are nonessential it may be administrative people, when it affects the projects of improving airports, building new generation towers and of course the air traffic control system, that affects air travel, those improvements are designed for not only fishsy, but safety. it will have a long-term effect the longer this goes on because of the scheduling. let s talk about security. can airports sti
operating curb costly subsidies from flights to and from 13 rural airports. some in the states of powerful democrats. all we re trying to do is end these wasteful subsidies, some as high as $3,700 a ticket. reporter: democrats accused republicans of a stunning display of politics over people. because they passed a bill and said to the united states senate either you take it our way or it will be no runway and no highway and no way. reporter: the federal government is losing $200 million a week in airline ticket taxes. in most cases, that savings is not being passed on to the public. but instead being pocketed by the airlines. lisa myers reporting for us. another detail out of that story, dozens of airport inspectors being asked by the faa to work without pay and to put company government travel expenses on their personal credit cards. could lead to a loss of $1