The clock is ticking toward a March 1 deadline when federal “sequestration” cuts will take effect unless Congress acts. If the cuts do go through, our economy will take a hit but our National Airspace System (NAS), in particular, will be imperiled. We can’t let that happen, and there is a way you can help.

Sequestration will trigger a $483 million cut in the Federal Aviation Administration operations budget, which would mean mandatory furloughs among FAA workers including air traffic controllers and aviation safety inspectors and systems specialists —most of whom are members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) and the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS).

We’ve been through this before. When Republican brinksmanship halted progress on the FAA Reauthorization Act in 2011, almost 4,000 FAA employees were sent home without pay for 13 days—pawns in a game designed to pump up the agenda of anti-government zealots. This is wrong – please add your voice to this battle.

The American public has made it abundantly clear that America needs jobs, not cuts. Americans have rejected this idea that we should use the current budget impasse in Washington to manufacture a crisis and impose cuts on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while coddling a tax code that favors the super-rich. Now these antics threaten to sacrifice air safety and the incredibly important work that FAA workers do to make air travel the safest in the world.

As March 1 fast approaches, take action right now to protest the sequestration cuts that will hurt the efficiency and capacity of our nation’s aviation system, and undermine air safety.