The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed by unanimous consent a bill that would end the furloughs of air traffic controllers. The furloughs have been blamed for widespread delays at the nation's airports.
The bill approved late Thursday would allow the transportation secretary to move up to $253 million during the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Freddie Neese does not want to live in a nursing home.
The 66-year-old who has congestive heart failure and an enlarged heart said he's able to stay in his own home - for now - with help from programs such as Meals on Wheels.
He greets volunteers who bring him prepared, healthy meals that include vegetables and fruits with a smile - and great appreciation.
"I don't want to be in a nursing home. I want to be in my own home and I want to live here as long as I can," said Neese, whose wife passed away in 2001. "Getting these meals means a lot to me.
"I don't know what I would do without it."
But this program both locally and nationwide will face tough financial times if, as expected, it becomes a victim of sequestration, the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts triggered because leaders couldn't agree on a better way to cut federal spending.
Across the country, administrators of Head Start -- the federal preschool educational, health and nutritional program for disadvantaged children -- have begun taking drastic measures to meet the 5-percent cut as mandated under the sequester. Unlike other agencies that have used budget dexterity to temporarily put off those cuts, Head Start has been forced to deal with budget gaps now because the school year ends this spring.
What's resulted is a series of operational changes that have left needy families even further in the lurch.
In Palm Beach County, for instance, Head Start has ended its bus service, forcing families for 2,300 children to find their own methods of transportation.
That's a relatively minor inconvenience compared to the other challenges Head Start parents now face. Many have been forced to figure out what to do with their children (often 3- to 5-years-old) during the days that the program will no longer be operational -- dozens of chapters have said they will shut their doors weeks early. Others have seen their child thrown off the Head Start rolls entirely. In Wisconsin, 700 families could end up losing Head Start access. In Cincinnati, nearly 200 children are at risk. In Oklahoma City, that number is 100.
"If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we’d be out of business in six months to a year," said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York. "The drugs we're going to lose money on we're not going to administer right now."
After an emergency meeting Tuesday, Vacirca's clinics decided that they would no longer see one-third of their 16,000 Medicare patients.
"A lot of us are in disbelief that this is happening," he said. "It's a choice between seeing these patients and staying in business."
The same story is playing out in public housing agencies around the country, according to Douglas Rice, senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Last week he authored a report that found 140,000 low-income families could be denied access to rental assistance by early next year because of the sequester.
"The severity of the shortfall in voucher renewal funding caused by sequestration is unprecedented in the history of the program," Rice wrote in the report. "Facing such large shortfalls, agencies will be forced to take steps to reduce program costs quickly, even as they spend down reserves."
“The secretary of the Army has approved the suspension of tuition assistance effective March 8, 2013, a statement on the GoArmyEd website read in part. ”Soldiers will no longer be permitted to submit new requests…However, soldiers currently enrolled in courses approved for tuition assistance are not affected, and will be allowed to complete current course enrollment(s). This change in the Army tuition assistance program applies to all soldiers, including the Army National Guard and Army Reserves. The Army understands the impacts of this decision and will re-evaluate the decision if the budgetary situation improves.”
Furloughs for 47,000 Federal Aviation Administration employees went into effect Sunday, causing 1,200 flight delays in the system Monday. That number fell short of the up to 6,700 flights per day the FAA has said could be affected, but it has already caused concern on both sides of the aisle.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed "poor planning" and "political motives" for the delays.
This episode shows whose problems Washington takes seriously. The FAA debacle is bad for the whole economy, but it particularly hurts people who fly a lot, who tend to be affluent. Members of Congress themselves also happen to fly a lot. As a result, we've gone from problem onset to legislative solution in about five days. (snip)
The FAA fix has been sold as an effort to ensure that sequestration does not interfere with "essential" government services. When lawmakers say "essential," they apparently mean "essential to people like me."
This outcome should alarm Democrats. Republicans don't like to talk too loudly about it, but the core of their long-term fiscal plan is to sharply reduce programs that aid the poor. Last year's House budget proposal cut $800 billion from Medicaid over 10 years, on top of a repeal of the Medicaid expansion and the rest of the Affordable Care Act, and it cut a further $800 billion from income security programs such as food stamps. (snip)
The FAA fight is a done deal. But Obama must be careful not to allow a series of piecemeal fixes that concentrate sequestration's effects solely on the poor. In coming months, as sequestration continues to unfold, defense contractors and military communities will be coming to Washington seeking relief. That lobby also may be powerful, but the Obama administration must tie a solution for them to one that helps the poor and the unemployed.
Quote by trojanrabbit:
Sorry, my TV geek hat is really on tight today.
Quote by TriSec:Quote by trojanrabbit:
Sorry, my TV geek hat is really on tight today.
I'll see your TV geek and raise you an aviation geek.
I left my ipod in the car again today. So, I was just thinking that I probably need to run my checklists again. In aviation, there are all kinds of checklists for the various phases of flight.
I made three for the car, a startup and shutdown list, and one for an "inflight emergency" as it were. (After my accident last year). One of the items is indeed "Disconnect and Stow iPod".
Quote by TriSec:Quote by trojanrabbit:
Sorry, my TV geek hat is really on tight today.
I'll see your TV geek and raise you an aviation geek.
I left my ipod in the car again today. So, I was just thinking that I probably need to run my checklists again. In aviation, there are all kinds of checklists for the various phases of flight.
I made three for the car, a startup and shutdown list, and one for an "inflight emergency" as it were. (After my accident last year). One of the items is indeed "Disconnect and Stow iPod".
Quote by wickedpam:
oh wow - George Jones has died.
Quote by BobR:
The biggest problem with any checklist is inconsistent implementation, generally as a result of hubris. Once you think you know everything on there by heart and stop looking at it, you start missing things.
Quote by wickedpam:
apparently everyone wants to have a loud meeting in the hall today
Quote by TriSec:Quote by wickedpam:
apparently everyone wants to have a loud meeting in the hall today
Maybe you should discharge a fire extinguisher in their general direction.
Quote by wickedpam:
You know my fave part about this whole FAA thing was when one Congress person (wish I could find quote) I heard on WTOP say they should have cut office staff first they aren't important.
Ya good luck with getting any of your paperwork or reports processed ass.
"Our goal here shouldn't be to score political points on the backs of weary travelers, it should be to fix the problem," McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday, citing the FAA's "mismanagement of this issue."
Quote by Raine:They are really assholes. This stunt is so damn transparent it's ridiculous.Quote by wickedpam:
You know my fave part about this whole FAA thing was when one Congress person (wish I could find quote) I heard on WTOP say they should have cut office staff first they aren't important.
Ya good luck with getting any of your paperwork or reports processed ass.Seriously -- he said that shit."Our goal here shouldn't be to score political points on the backs of weary travelers, it should be to fix the problem," McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday, citing the FAA's "mismanagement of this issue."
WASHINGTON --
Legislation to end furloughs of air traffic controllers and delays for millions of travelers is headed to a House vote after the Senate approved legislation late Thursday giving the Federal Aviation Administration budget wiggle room that wouldn't require controllers to take unpaid days off.
The bill passed without even a roll call vote, and today the House of Representatives s expected to approve the legislation just in time for lawmakers to head to the airports for a weeklong vacation.
Quote by TriSec:
Not sure what the "official" term is, but it looks like it was passed in the Senate by acclaim.
Senate passes bill
WASHINGTON --
Legislation to end furloughs of air traffic controllers and delays for millions of travelers is headed to a House vote after the Senate approved legislation late Thursday giving the Federal Aviation Administration budget wiggle room that wouldn't require controllers to take unpaid days off.
The bill passed without even a roll call vote, and today the House of Representatives s expected to approve the legislation just in time for lawmakers to head to the airports for a weeklong vacation.
Quote by TriSec:
Not sure what the "official" term is, but it looks like it was passed in the Senate by acclaim.
Senate passes bill
WASHINGTON --
Legislation to end furloughs of air traffic controllers and delays for millions of travelers is headed to a House vote after the Senate approved legislation late Thursday giving the Federal Aviation Administration budget wiggle room that wouldn't require controllers to take unpaid days off.
The bill passed without even a roll call vote, and today the House of Representatives s expected to approve the legislation just in time for lawmakers to head to the airports for a weeklong vacation.
Quote by Scoopster:Quote by TriSec:
Not sure what the "official" term is, but it looks like it was passed in the Senate by acclaim.
Senate passes bill
WASHINGTON --
Legislation to end furloughs of air traffic controllers and delays for millions of travelers is headed to a House vote after the Senate approved legislation late Thursday giving the Federal Aviation Administration budget wiggle room that wouldn't require controllers to take unpaid days off.
The bill passed without even a roll call vote, and today the House of Representatives s expected to approve the legislation just in time for lawmakers to head to the airports for a weeklong vacation.
Unanimous Consent, I believe?
Elderly, children, troops, poor and sick people -- none of them got a vote last night. By unanimous consent, (in other words, no floor vote happened) this problem ended:
Quote by TriSec:
You are aware that the whole FAA thing is a manufactured crisis? The tax on airfares was designed and targeted to pay for ATC. The sequester didn't change the tax collection here, but what it did do was remove the targeted allocation. So that money has just been sitting there and has not been used. Congress is just releasing the funds to pay for what they were designed to pay for in the first place.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association decried the furloughs on Tuesday, saying that the FAA is paying some workers overtime to cover for furloughed employees.
"It's simple math - furloughing controllers earning base while paying others base pay plus an additional 50 percent will not result in savings," the NATCA said in statement. (snip)
"The FAA has initiated a series of cost-saving measures ... but the fact is 70 percent of the FAA's operations budget is personnel, so there is simply no way to avoid furloughs," Carney said at the daily press briefing Tuesday. "If Congress wants to address this matter then they should act, but this is something that only by law Congress can do."
Quote by Raine:In the ABC link I have in the blog, they have something about what you wrote that perked my attention:Quote by TriSec:
You are aware that the whole FAA thing is a manufactured crisis? The tax on airfares was designed and targeted to pay for ATC. The sequester didn't change the tax collection here, but what it did do was remove the targeted allocation. So that money has just been sitting there and has not been used. Congress is just releasing the funds to pay for what they were designed to pay for in the first place.The National Air Traffic Controllers Association decried the furloughs on Tuesday, saying that the FAA is paying some workers overtime to cover for furloughed employees.
"It's simple math - furloughing controllers earning base while paying others base pay plus an additional 50 percent will not result in savings," the NATCA said in statement. (snip)
"The FAA has initiated a series of cost-saving measures ... but the fact is 70 percent of the FAA's operations budget is personnel, so there is simply no way to avoid furloughs," Carney said at the daily press briefing Tuesday. "If Congress wants to address this matter then they should act, but this is something that only by law Congress can do."
After cooperating with FBI investigators for two days of (possibly fruitless) questioning this week, Zubeidat and Anzor Tsarnaev are now laying low. CNN has the report on their undisclosed whereabouts:
The parents of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects have left their home in Dagestan for another part of Russia, the suspects' mother Zubeidat Tsarnaev told CNN Friday. She said the suspects' father, Anzor Tsarnaev, is delaying his trip to the United States indefinitely.
Quote by Raine:
:blink: Ed is killing me today.
Quote by wickedpam:Quote by Raine:
:blink: Ed is killing me today.
why? cause he's talking Duck Dynasty?
Quote by Raine:Quote by wickedpam:Quote by Raine:
:blink: Ed is killing me today.
why? cause he's talking Duck Dynasty?
No, it was his droning on about not knowing celebrities and white house dinners and
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has given tacit approval to the Boy Scouts’ proposal to allow gay youth to join, saying they “appreciate the positive things†included in the plan to end the organization's controversial ban on gay boys.
The Boy Scouts of America last week proposed allowing gay youth – but not adults – to participate in the private youth organization. That came two months after they floated the idea of allowing gays and lesbians of all ages to join, a proposal that was denounced by the conservative religious groups that make up a bulk of Scouting.
“We are grateful to BSA for their careful consideration of these issues. We appreciate the positive things contained in this current proposal that will help build and strengthen the moral character and leadership skills of youth as we work together in the future,†the LDS church said Thursday in a statement posted to their website.
“The current BSA proposal constructively addresses a number of important issues that have been part of the ongoing dialogue, including consistent standards for all BSA partners, recognition that Scouting exists to serve and benefit youth rather than Scout leaders, a single standard of moral purity for youth in the program, and a renewed emphasis for Scouts to honor their duty to God."
The Mormon church tops the list of membership enrollment numbers, with 431,000 youths participating in LDS-sponsored units as of Dec. 31, 2012. That was followed by the United Methodist Church at 364,000 and the Catholic Church at 274,000. More than 70 percent of Scouting units are chartered to faith-based groups.
Quote by Scoopster:
Or you know, we could just fucking ban guns in schools..
Quote by TriSec:Quote by Scoopster:
Or you know, we could just fucking ban guns in schools..
Remember a few years back (It may have been after Columbine, if memory serves) the brief "see-through backpack" craze?
Yeah, that worked well.
Quote by Scoopster:
What's the latest word on Herr Mondo?
Quote by Raine:no news.Quote by Scoopster:
What's the latest word on Herr Mondo?
I assume he is still in the hospital. Y'all can pm me if you want his number.
Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:no news.Quote by Scoopster:
What's the latest word on Herr Mondo?
I assume he is still in the hospital. Y'all can pm me if you want his number.
I'm suppose to have another CT done today. But since this is a hospital, it could happen at any moment. On another note, soap is one of the blessings of civilization.
Quote by Raine:Quote by Mondobubba:Quote by Raine:no news.Quote by Scoopster:
What's the latest word on Herr Mondo?
I assume he is still in the hospital. Y'all can pm me if you want his number.
I'm suppose to have another CT done today. But since this is a hospital, it could happen at any moment. On another note, soap is one of the blessings of civilization.