Republican Outrages

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) lauded the passage tonight of a Motion to Recommit the FAA Reauthorization Act to the conference committee as a clear rebuke to the Republican leadership, which fundamentally altered the legislation in conference after it passed the House 418-8 and the Senate 94-0 in June.

Nearly three months after House and Senate conferees hurriedly agreed to a four-year, $59.2 billion reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the legislation is still mired in a largely partisan dispute over privatization of airport control towers.

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (MD) today released the following statement in response to a press report in Aviation Daily that House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Mica is going to remove air traffic control towers in Republican districts from the privatization list in order to buy off votes for the FAA Reauthorization Conference Report...

Congressional Democrats plan to continue pressing the White House for an independent investigation into how an undercover CIA officer's identity was revealed, and will hold closed-door talks with the officer's husband to further their efforts.

WASHINGTON - Reports that the White House leaked the name of a CIA operative -- the wife of an administration critic -- have sparked an intense, if predictable, furor on Capitol Hill: Democrats are demanding an independent investigation, while leading Republicans say the matter, though serious, is being overblown.

WASHINGTON – House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN), Ranking Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Ranking Democrat on the Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation, John Carr, President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, and Jeremy Yahn, an experienced Air Traffic Controller, held a press conference this afternoon in opposition to Republican attempts to privatize air traffic control and weaken air safety. The following is Rep. Hoyer’s statement as prepared for delivery:

Nearly 10 years after winning control of the House by vowing a fairer and more open Congress, Republicans have tossed aside many of the institutional reforms they promised, increasingly employing hard-nosed tactics they decried a decade ago, according to numerous lawmakers and scholars...

House Democrats head into the August recess furious at Republican leaders who they claim have crossed the acceptable boundaries of partisanship...