the current lapse at f.a.a. taxes and expenditure authority from the airport and airway trust fund is a detrimental situation brought about -- brought on by the senate majority's refusal to engage in substantive negotiations on a long-term f.a.a. reauthorization bill, which, by the way, did pass the house. additionally, it isn't clear to me that the legislation just offered would avoid a retroactive tax increase on travelers. i didn't set out to cause f.a.a. taxes to expire but reinstating them to a retroactive basis is more than i'm willing to subject taxpayers to. and as i've already said, i share house transportation and infrastructure committee chairman mica's frustration and the frustration of republican leadership in both the house and the senate that favors to organized labor have overshadowed the prospects for long-term f.a.a. reauthorization. last year, the national mediation board changed the rules under which employees of airlines and railroads are able to unionize. for decades, the standard has been t