It’s not the most important example of bipartisan gridlock these days, but the legislation funding the Federal Aviation Administration expired Friday at midnight after House and Senate leaders failed to reach agreement on a routine extension. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that nearly 4,000 FAA employees will be furloughed, and the agency would shut down its Airport Improvement Program.

The dispute involves a long-term FAA bill to which House Republicans have been trying to attach language that would make it harder for airline and railroad employees to unionize. Senate Democrats resisted the language, so House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica sent the Senate an otherwise clean extension that striped some silly subsidies for little-used rural airports that just happened to be located in the states of three key Democratic senators.