[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 43 (Tuesday, April 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
      AIRPORT IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM TEMPORARY EXTENSION ACT OF 1994

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, in my remarks at an Aviation Subcommittee 
hearing on September 28, 1993, I stated to the chairman of the Aviation 
Subcommittee that I would support a single-year Airport Improvement 
Program [AIP] reauthorization this fiscal year but urged him to 
consider a multiyear reauthorization next year as a major reform in 
assisting airport managers in a long-term stabilized-funding program.
  I regret that we are unable to consider a 1-year authorization, and 
that we are resorting to a stop-gap measure which merely puts off the 
same difficult issues for another day. This is most unfortunate. The 
inability to resolve the issues involved with the AIP reauthorization 
has serious consequences.
  We have all received hundreds of letters on this important issue of 
AIP reauthorization. Letters like this one from Stephen Coffman of 
Phoenix, AZ:

       Senator, it is very late in the year; you all get lost in 
     the fact that it is a new session, but we will have less than 
     five months to put fiscal year 1994 together if you act 
     immediately.
       I have had to explain to our employees that this delay in 
     funding for fiscal year 1994 is severely affecting our firm 
     now, and may result in our demise * * * We have a staff of 36 
     highly trained and experienced persons. We have gone through 
     a very competitive and costly selection process to win the 
     contracts that make up our service. Virtually all these 
     contracts are funded from this legislation. Our clients want 
     our work done quickly (in less than a year), so our contracts 
     seldom extend more than a year. We have been selected for 
     enough work to meet our needs for all of fiscal year 1994.
       Unfortunately, we have no funding and, as the fees from our 
     existing contracts dwindle, so does our firm. If this delay 
     lasts even one more month, we will have to lay off a 
     significant number of our employees. We will also become less 
     competitive without them. Another month or two and we will be 
     forced out of business; a business we have worked 15 years to 
     build and spent another 15 years learning before we started 
     our firm.
       I've noticed the President and several Congressmen quoting 
     ``the little guy'' in their speeches lately. Well, Senator, 
     we are ``the little guy'' and there isn't much time to 
     quote us unless its posthumously.

  Mr. President, I think it is important that I read the main body of 
this hard-working businessman's letter to remind my colleagues of the 
very real threat that exists in delaying for one moment more, S. 1491, 
the Airport Improvement Program [AIP] reauthorization. We are killing 
businesses and putting hard-working Americans out of work.
  I am fully prepared to move forward on the full AIP legislation 
today, but again the Senate has reached an impasse.
  After initially introducing a single-year authorization bill, S. 
1491, the distinguished chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee, my 
friend and colleague, Senator Ford and his staff have worked in a 
bipartisan fashion to respond to the concerns of businessmen like 
Stephen Coffman. The committee has worked hard to produce an AIP 
legislative substitute that in fact provides for a multiyear 
authorization.
  However, at the 11th hour under some classic congressional 
brinkmanship, the interests of just a few airports, particularly one in 
southern California, who do not want any restrictions on rates and 
charges, are forcing the Senate to settle for a piece-meal, stop-gap 
legislation. This accommodation comes at the expense of our entire 
Federal air transportation system.
  The issue that has brought the Senate to its knees and will most 
probably cost jobs in the long run is a simple requirement that rates 
and charges at airports must be reasonable and there must be iron-clad 
assurances that diverting them for purposes other than aviation needs 
will not be allowed.
  Years ago the Congress created the Aviation Trust Fund, the intent of 
the Congress, then and is now, was to create much needed airport 
capital development and maintenance. However something has gone awry--
we now have a $7 to $8 billion surplus in the Aviation Trust Fund. Such 
unjustified surpluses, were never intended by the laws under which the 
Government funds airports. Such surpluses not intended by the law, 
should not be used to shield the size of the deficit and justify 
spending on other projects.
  Nearly every airline will agree that to some extent a reasonable nest 
egg to fund a long-term capital project is necessary. However, it is 
the unjustified surpluses which cleverly subsidize nonaviation projects 
or which are reserved for a day they can be used for other than air 
transportation purposes. This outcome perpetuates a continuing fraud on 
the traveling consumer.
  Mr. President, by allowing this to happen for some time, the 
Government has broken faith with the traveling public and everyone 
involved in aviation.
  Mr. President, again I'm sorry that we have been unable to deal with 
these issues. It's important that we do so. I realize that funding for 
airports is critical and that any further delay would harm the air 
transportation system and innocent contractors like Stephen Coffman. 
However, I also believe that it is in the interest of the aviation 
industry, the traveling public, the airports, and all concerned that we 
act on an AIP bill within the next 60 days. It was with this 
understanding and assurance from the leadership that I granted my 
consent to passage of this stopgap measure.
  I want to thank my colleagues and I look forward to Senate 
consideration and passage of a responsible AIP bill reauthorization in 
a timely fashion.

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