KALAMAZOO (WKZO) --  Federal Aviation Administration Director Ray Lahood is pleading with Congress to come back from summer recess and approve his budget, so that they can begin collecting taxes again, and resume work on hundreds of airport projects around the country.

The Chairman of Kalamazoo’s Aviation Board, Gill Collver, told the Kalamazoo County Board Wednesday night that its brought work on their new control tower to a halt with no guarantee, only a hope that it will be completed eventually.

They hope the work will resume this fall, and be completed some time in 2013, as planned. They are just glad this didn’t happen last year when their terminal was under construction.

Nationwide, 70,000 construction workers have been idled by the congressional impasse.