WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House now says it's willing to consider legislation that would give the administration the budget-cutting flexibility to avoid furloughs of air traffic controllers.

Those furloughs could result in widespread air traffic delays.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says that if Congress wants to address the effect of automatic spending cuts on the Federal Aviation Administration, "we would be open to looking at that."

But he says that would be a "Band-Aid measure" that would not address other automatic cuts that kicked in March 1.

Back in February, when those cuts were approaching, the White House threatened to veto legislation that would give Obama greater budget-cutting flexibility.

At the time, the White House said it couldn't make dramatic cuts without affecting national security or hurting the economy.