Boo to Hot Air, which posted this headline: “Good news: Feds pulling workers away from FAA to staff exploding Cash for Clunkers bureaucracy” (I found it via Volokh.) The Hot Air post plays up the possibility that thin-on-the-ground air traffic controllers are being taken from towers to process paperwork. The article cited, from the Washington Times, however, makes it clear that this is not the case:
But Ms. Zuckman said that only support personnel, such as in finance and operations, were asked to work on the clunkers program.
“Nobody is being ordered to do anything; we weren’t asking air traffic controllers to leave their posts. We’re using budget and accounting people primarily,” she said.
“It was made clear that no core mission activities of the FAA are to be affected by this effort, especially as they could relate to air traffic operations.”
A union spokeswoman confirmed the account Friday.
“Air traffic controllers are not being asked to do this,” said Alex Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
Basically, the actual story doesn’t live up to Hot Air’s scare headline. You don’t have to think that Cash for Clunkers was a good idea (I don’t) to think it’s a bad idea for federal support personnel to spend a few days helping to clear a backlog that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.
Unless something develops in this story, there’s nothing to see here.
Evan Sparks's Aviation Policy Blog 