Congressional Democrats are standing their ground on the FAA: they're prepared to pass a clean FAA extension, but not to capitulate to Republican hostage-taking. DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, for instance, tweets:
The DCCC is also getting into this one, as Greg Sargent writes:
The DCCC is now going on the offensive over the issue, blasting out releases in the districts of 50 House Republicans slamming them for going on recess without agreeing to the “clean” temporary reauthorization. “Representative Chip Cravaack called it quits and closed shop in Washington without resolving the FAA shutdown, which has thousands of workers on furlough, safety inspectors working without pay, and millions lost in revenue by the day,” reads the DCCC release sent out in Cravaack’s district.
Sargent questions whether Democrats will hold firm after the recess in negotiations over a long-term reauthorization bill or whether they'll give in to Republican demands for an anti-union provision in which airline workers who don't vote in union elections will be counted as having voted against the union. It's really hard to place a bet against Democrats caving at least to a substantial degree, but right now they are going to the mat on this issue.
Unfortunately, they're not getting any help from the leader of their party. President Obama made some remarks prior to a cabinet meeting today, saying, in part:
Some of you may be aware of the fact that the FAA routinely gets its authorities extended through Congress; it’s happened 20 times since 2007. This time, Congress has decided to play some politics with it. And as a consequence, they left town without getting this extension done.
[....]
So this is a lose-lose-lose situation that can be easily solved if Congress gets back into town and does its job. And they don’t even have to come back into town. The House and the Senate could, through a procedural agreement, basically do this through unanimous consent. And they can have the fights that they want to have when they get back. Don’t put the livelihoods of thousands of people at risk. Don’t put projects at risk. And don’t let a billion dollars, at a time when we’re scrambling for every dollar we can, get left on the table because Congress did not act.
Now, the procedural agreement Obama is describing here seems to be the one congressional Democrats are calling for. But unless you're following the minutia of the issue, you wouldn't have a clue. He doesn't call explicitly for a clean extension, which is what's needed here and what Republicans are flatly refusing to do. He doesn't say the word "Republicans." Reading this, you could think that both sides are playing games, that it's just a generic congressional issue and not a matter of one side, yet again, taking hostages.
Harry Reid and Jay Rockefeller and Barbara Boxer and Chuck Schumer and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Steny Hoyer—Steny Hoyer—are out there fighting on this one to make sure people know that they are willing and have been willing to pass a clean short-term extension while the long-term issues get fought out, that they remain willing to do so despite the recess. And their president won't even say that they're not the ones to blame for this.