Radio Smart Talk for Thursday, August 4:

"Another Washington-inflicted wound on America."  That's the way president Obama described Congress not acting on a short-term funding bill that has created a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration and disrupted hundreds of airport construction projects across the nation.

While most of the country and the media has been focused on the debt ceiling debate, Congress failed to finalize funding for the FAA, which resulted in the furlough of four thousand FAA employees, thousands of construction workers idled or laid off and the government losing $200 million a week in airline tax revenue that hasn't been re-authorized to be collected. 

Republicans in the House inserted language in a short-term funding bill that cut funding to a small number of rural airports.  Democrats in the Senate objected saying what Republicans were really trying to do was roll back new rules that would make it easier for airline workers to unionize.

Now both the House and Senate have adjourned until September leaving the FAA without funding until at least then.

On Thursday's program, we'll talk to Kate Hanni, head of Flyers Rights.org, which calls itself the largest non-profit consumers organization representing airline passengers in the country.

We'll also address other air travel-related issues like waiting times on tarmacs, lost baggage, and security scans.