16:56"For many months, lawmakers had regularly extended FAA authority temporarily while they negotiated their differences. John Mica (the Republican chairman of the house Transportation and Infrastructure Committee), though, insisted that he would no longer keep that agency operating in the absence of an agreement. He would kill any reauthorization unless Democrats in the Senate agree to reverse a ruling permitting FAA employees to bargain in the same way as other federal employee unions and shut off subsidies to small airports, the latter having especially dire consequences for the key negotiating senators, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Max Baucus of Montana…When Senate Democrats wouldn’t accede to his demands, Mica refused to continue authorizing the agency and let the House adjourn without action. Again, the consequences to American citizens were considerable. Major parts of the FAA were shut down for several weeks, putting thousands of workers on furlough and requiring airplane inspectors to work without pay and cover their own travel expenses out of pocket in order keep airplanes safe and flying…Around 24,000 construction workers lost their jobs…and the FAA could not collect airfare taxes for several weeks, costing the federal treasury some $300 million." —

It’s Even Worse Than It Looks - Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein