Story ID: 
Congress Extends FAA Reauthorization
By: Chad Trautvetter
Caption: Breaking for the Independence Day holiday, Congress extended funding for FAA operations and programs for a 14th time.
Word Count: 136
Breaking for the Independence Day holiday, Congress extended funding for FAA operations and programs for a 14th time. New reauthorization legislation has been bottled up in a conference committee that is wrangling over a knotty problem that has next to nothing to do with the FAA–a little known provision tucked into the House bill that would make it easier for ground workers at FedEx to organize a union. Congress has been unable to pass a multiyear FAA bill for almost three years, and while there are other differences between the House and Senate bills, the labor dispute involving unionized UPS and non-union ground workers at FedEx is by far the largest divide. The Senate bill lacks the FedEx clause, and Rockefeller has said reauthorization will not pass the Senate if it includes the FedEx provision.