The problems of a dysfunctional Congress in Washington, D.C. are landing on our regional runways.

Santa Maria’s airport is in the midst of lengthening its runway, the Santa Barbara facility recently completed the biggest terminal update since right after World War II, and in San Luis Obispo the control tower is being seismically retrofitted. But the money for these ongoing on projects and others is being held up because Congress refuses to pass what has been an otherwise routine extension of funding for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The nation’s finances are a shambles, and it is commendable that some in Congress are at least talking the talk of meaningful reform. But cutting off money for partly completed airport projects — at a time when Central Coast business leaders have specifically noted a lack of good airline access as an economic roadblock — is not the place to make a stand.