The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has basically been shut down thanks to the Senate Democrats addition to pork. 4,000 FAA employees have been furloughed until further notice. 70,000 construction workers must now sit on their hands as all airport construction has halted. And the federal government is loosing $200million a week in airline ticket taxes because they are not authorized to legally collect the tax.

What has led to this massive shut down? Senate Democrats refusal to curb a wasteful government subsidy of $200 million known as the Essential Air Service (EAS) program.

As of last Friday, the FAA has lost its authorization to spend money and levy fees because Congress couldn’t come to an agreement on a transportation bill. House Republicans are currently purposing a temporary transportation bill to last through September allowing time for the two parties to come together on a larger agreement. Included in the bill is a provision that would curb the EAS program.

The EAS program was originally created in 1978 as a subsidy to help out small and rural airports as the government stepped back from regulating routes and fares. The program was intended to last 10 years. Over three decades later, the program is still in existence serving over 140 airports; its budget keeps exploding and now the program functions only to subsidize routes that would have been abandoned year ago.

The EAS program subsidizes a rural airport in Lewistown, Montana. In 2007, that airport reported that it averaged .6 passengers per flight. Last year, an EAS route between Atlanta and Macon made many flights without a single passenger on board, which resulted in an annual per-passenger subsidy of $464 to keep that route running. And in Kansas, EAS pays three airports in Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal to remain open. All are within 75 miles of each other.

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From the Associated Press:

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.

A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He had been in the hospital since late last week.

At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He had been in frail health for several years.

Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate’s majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently hit a major stumbling block in its effort to impose net neutrality via the “reclassification” of broadband services.  Following months of civil rights groups, artists, and a major union voicing their opposition to net neutrality as a policy and a federal appeals court ruling that the FCC’s regulatory power was more limited than the agency had believed, 248 members of the U.S. House of Representatives went on the record to oppose the FCC’s plans.

But that hasn’t stopped the FCC from continuing to pursue reclassification.  Last week, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn unveiled herself as a supporter of designating broadband a telephone service under Title II of the Communications Act.

In a speech to the Media Institute, Clyburn rejected the notion that reclassification constituted a power grab saying that “The chairman is proposing that we reestablish the authority that the commission and most observers thought we had.”

But opponents say that the FCC’s proposed action is exactly that—a naked power grab, aimed not at reestablishing something “stripped” of the FCC, but rather extending the agency’s reach to impose heavy regulation on Internet services, in possible usurpation of Congress’ authority.

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Poll after poll have recently affirmed that the ClimateGate revelations (I actually say “affirmations“) dealt a mortal blow to the public’s belief in the environmentalist brass ring of “catastrophic Man-made global warming.” The dishonesty exposed therein iced the cake for a public attentive to the increasingly shrill and absurd alarmist campaign, demonstrably cooler temperatures cool and the sky remaining precisely where we left it.

Troubled by such results, several green groups to rush out polls of their own, riddled with gauzy questions generally distilling to “wouldn’t you want to save the planet from destruction if you could get rich doing so?” I oversimplify, but not grossly. This week the National Wildlife Federation claimed two-thirds of Americans want federal limits on greenhouse gases! Surely a Congress desperate to do something popular will hop on board this train? Not likely.

The shocker from these forays is that a substantial number have so little regard for the alarmist claptrap that they’re willing to dismiss even loaded questions designed to elicit a positive response.

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As the Federal Communications Commission pushes forward in crafting its national broadband plan—anticipated to encompass controversial net neutrality provisions— the agency is attracting newfound criticism from key members of the U.S. Senate, reports Congress Daily (via nextgov).

Setting aside tersely-worded warnings from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) regarding the prospect of the FCC submitting a broadband plan that is “complicated, esoteric, filled with grandiose ideas and dependent on protracted rulemaking to implement,” the Committee as a whole is reportedly concerned about the overly highbrow nature of discussions regarding the plan:

“There’s growing concern within the Senate Commerce Committee that the process has become too academic. Dozens of workshops designed to provide the public with an opportunity to learn about the plan and interact with the agency have featured Ph.D.-level policy discussions that even some telecom experts have difficultly understanding.”

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