Steny Hoyer on the FAA exception to the Sequester

Congressman Lambasts Reps Who Chose To Fund FAA Instead Of Feeding Hungry Children | The New Civil Rights Movement thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/congressman-la…
— Rick Cooley (@rcooley123) April 28, 2013

“While I want to end these delays for passengers in Maryland and across the country, I will oppose this bill because it fails to address the whole impact of sequester. Let me share just a handful of examples of how the sequester will affect Americans.

• Education: Head Start, 70,000 children will be kicked out of Head Start. 
• Furloughs to cause delays in processing retirement for disability claims 
• Four million fewer Meals on Wheels for seniors. 600,000 people dropped off WIC  
• Housing: 125,000 less HUD rental assistant vouchers 
• Emergency unemployment insurance cut 11% for two million out-of-work Americans 
• FDA: 2,100 fewer food safety inspectors, an 18% cut 
• Longer waits to approve new drugs 
• Defense and homeland security: furloughs equivalent to 1,000 fewer federal agents, FBI, border, etc., on the job; one third of combat air units are grounded 
• 89,000 agency-wide furloughs in IRS, up to seven days, including taxpayer assistance centers — nothing in here for them. They serve 89,000 taxpayers trying to find help. [Note: Rep. Hoyer misspoke -- the figure is 97 million taxpayers.]

“We ought not to be mitigating the sequester’s effect on just one segment when children, the sick, our military and many other groups who will be impacted by this irresponsible policy are left unhelped. Instead of dressing this serious wound with a small band-aid, let’s get to work on a real solution, let’s go to conference, let’s get a big deal, let’s deal with all the adverse consequences of sequester, not just those that affect the powerful air travelers of America. We ought to help them, but we ought to help everybody else as well.”