NARFE’s statement on Congress’ action to end furloughs at the FAA

Joseph A. Beaudoin, president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) and a former federal air traffic controller, released the following statement today in response to Congress’ action to ease the consequences of sequestration at America’s airports:
 
“As a former air traffic controller, I am relieved that Congress took action to temporarily patch the problems emerging at our nation’s airports due to sequestration and the subsequent furloughs of federal employees who perform important jobs for America. As we’ve seen this week at America’s airports, there are consequences to arbitrarily cutting federal funding, and, therefore, federal jobs.

“We remain concerned that, for the second time in as many months, Congress is playing favorites with services provided to the American public by federal employees. Last month, Congress took action to ensure that furloughs could be avoided for TSA agents, meat inspectors and border patrol agents. However, hundreds of thousands of federal employees providing services across the United States still face furloughs. This week, when air traffic controllers were required to take unpaid days off, so were employees of the Office of Management and Budget, National Park Service, and Environmental Protection Agency. The public outcry that forced Congress to once again change the rules of sequestration has reaffirmed two lessons: First, federal employees provide unique services that the public depends on; and, second, deficit reduction cannot be put solely on the backs of federal workers without consequences.
 
“We were repeatedly told that sequestration was meant to cut across the government so that no agency was spared the difficult budget decisions. However, Congress has once again cherry-picked ‘winners and losers’ in the increasingly farcical sequestration process. In so doing, they are denigrating the very essence of government and the role of public service. We’ve had enough of the reactionary legislative response. It is time for Washington to come together to agree to smart, sensible approaches to tackling the budget.”