Deal on FAA shutdown is signed into law

Other lawmakers had scattered earlier this week for Congress’ August recess. And yesterday’s finishing-business vote was as low key as Congress gets, in marked contrast to the noisy, intemperate, and enervating debt-limit battle of recent weeks.

Obama’s signature means nearly 4,000 furloughed FAA employees can return to work as soon as Monday. The shutdown has cost the government about $400 million in uncollected airline ticket taxes and idled thousands of construction workers.

“This impasse was an unnecessary strain on local economies across the country at a time when we can’t allow politics to get in the way of our economic recovery,’’ Obama said in a statement. “So I’m glad that this stalemate has finally been resolved.’’

A bipartisan compromise reached Thursday cleared the way for Senate passage of the House bill, which includes a provision eliminating $16.5 million in air service subsidies to 13 rural communities. But the bill also includes language that gives Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood the authority to continue subsidized service to the 13 communities if he thinks that it is necessary.

Republicans had insisted on the subsidy cuts as their price for restoring the FAA to full operation.

Democrats said they expect the administration to effectively waive or negate the cuts, although that will not happen right away. That is because the cuts do not kick in until existing contracts with airlines for the subsidized service expire. The length of those contracts varies by community.

The shutdown began when much of Washington was transfixed by the stalemate over increasing the government’s debt limit. During that time, the FAA furloughed some workers but kept air traffic controllers and most safety inspectors on the job.

Forty airport safety inspectors worked without pay, picking up their own travel expenses. Some 70,000 workers on construction-related jobs on airport projects across the country were idled because the FAA could not pay for the work.

But airline passengers in the busy travel season hardly noticed any changes.