In The News

The Senate After Dark
The Wall Street Journal - Editorial
March 25, 2013, 7:05 p.m. ET

The U.S. Senate these days seems to conduct most of its business after dark, often after midnight, and no wonder. You wouldn't want voters to know what you were up to either if you were part of Majority Leader Harry Reid's national embarrassment.

Consider last week's fiasco involving the air-traffic control system. As part of the White House's Operation Wreak Havoc response to the sequester spending cuts, the Department of Transportation warned last week that 149 control towers at small, regional airports will close down. Local newspapers are running headlines about the imminent loss of flight service.

Next on the list could be furloughs at major airports that would mean flight delays for millions of travelers. The DOT helpfully warns that these delays could be "very painful for the flying public." The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accounts for only 20% of the Transportation budget but under White House and Congressional sequester math somehow absorbs 60% of the cuts.

Many of the service cutbacks could have been easily avoided by a budget amendment last week sponsored by Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas. He proposed replacing $50 million of FAA sequester cuts with savings from unspent balances, which are a kind of agency slush fund, and by reducing other low-priority spending. Great idea.

How did the vote turn out? There wasn't one. Majority Leader Reid blocked the amendment from ever getting to the Senate floor. Mr. Moran believes that public safety is compromised by these control-tower cuts, and he calls the Reid gambit "a very dangerous way to try to score political points."

Mr. Reid used the same tactics last week to block nearly a dozen other measures to soften the impact of the sequester. Mr. Moran also couldn't get a vote to restore funding for White House tours by cutting $2.5 million for new uniforms for airport screeners.

Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma sponsored seven amendments to save money—including one to provide funding to the National Park Service to keep open the likes of Yosemite and Yellowstone—by cutting programs that even Mr. Obama's budget calls low priorities. He also proposed freezing new hiring of "nonessential personnel" and to end conferences by the Department of Homeland Security. At least he got roll-call votes, but nearly every one was defeated by Democrats when Mr. Reid gave the order to his caucus.

Mr. Reid's blocking tactics were supported by President Obama, whose main political goal continues to be to impose as much sequester pain as possible on the public to force Republicans to raise taxes again.

So in the weeks ahead travelers will likely experience the frustration of flight delays, cancellations and closed airports. It won't happen by accident or out of fiscal necessity, but because Washington Democrats refuse to prioritize federal spending.