It's a big deal because the FAA hasn't been funded for a couple of years now, and many critical aviation infrastructure projects are barely limping along on continuing resolutions. Some of the reasons are really stupid... According to aviation week, during the last congressional session the FAA authorization was held up over a single airline's fight with it's employee union. That's billions of dollars targeted at national resources held up over a civil labor dispute between a few thousand people and yet another struggling airline.
Not that the labor issues don't need national attention, but my point is that seemingly small and isolated incidents have held up the FAA budget for a couple of years now, and this could hold it up for another session. DUI is stupidly selfish in any situation, but it's orders of magnitude worse when you lead an agency waiting for millions of dollars in funding that has already been held up over trivia.
