Far be it for President Barack "new politics" Obama to interfere
with Washington's fabled ways.
Reports the Washington Post:
The Federal Aviation Administration, after reviewing concerns
about a project at a regional airport named after
Rep.
John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), has decided to go forward with
plans to use $800,000 in stimulus funds to repave the airport's
alternate runway.
Late this afternoon, a spokesperson for the Department of
Transportation confirmed that the department had completed its
review and would be releasing the funds for the Johnstown, Pa.,
airport project.
DOT spokesperson Jill Zuckman said the review was undertaken
after a "senior policy" official at DOT decided he wanted to
reconsider the project, but she declined to identify who that
was or detail the reason for the reconsideration. She said the
runway's concrete hasn't been replaced in many years and is in
need of repaving.
"The bottom line is it deserved the money based on the merits,"
Zuckman said. "It's not an earmark."
The FAA had notified the John P. Murtha-Johnstown airport
authority that the project was under review, and authority
board members said press reports about other federal funding
steered to the quiet regional airport was leading the FAA to
reconsider the repaving project.
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and the Senior Fellow in International Religious Persecution at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics (Crossway).
