BY ERIN MURPHY
Iowa’s 1st District Congressman, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, has signed a bipartisan letter urging the Federal Aviation Administration to reconsider closing 149 air traffic control towers, including the one at Dubuque Regional Airport.
Braley, a Democrat, on Friday joined a group of 45 other House members imploring the FAA to find another way to employ mandatory spending cuts.
Dubuque’s tower is set for closure Monday. In a press release, Braley said the closures unfairly target small cities and rural communities.
“I’m disappointed that the FAA has decided to allow the burden of these closures to fall disproportionally on small cities and rural communities across the country. Each one of these communities will feel the negative impacts of these closures, and the impact on Dubuque is particularly acute,” Braley said. “I’ll keep doing everything I can to pressure the FAA to reverse this misguided decision, while working to convince Congress to accept responsibility for sequestration and get to work making the tough decisions needed to reduce the debt.”
Braley also wrote a letter to the FAA last month to express his opposition to closure of the Dubuque tower.
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