[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 4, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E769]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   FAA SHOULD BE AN INDEPENDENT AGENCY

                                 ______


                           HON. JIM LIGHTFOOT

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 4, 1995
  Mr. LIGHTFOOT. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation to 
restore the Federal Aviation Administration to independent agency 
status. The legislation will also provide the FAA with the major 
personnel, procurement, and finance reforms needed to keep America's 
air traffic control system the best in the world.
  Although our national air transportation system is the best in the 
world--it should be better. As a pilot and flight instructor, I've seen 
a lot of problems with the FAA bureaucracy. And I've heard from far too 
many people who've had first-hand experience with the mismanagement and 
inefficiencies at the FAA. These are exemplified by the advanced 
automation system, which is the core of the airspace modernization 
effort--a project bungled so badly that it is billions over budget an 
years behind schedule.
  We're clearly not doing our best to ensure that ours is the safest 
and most efficient system possible. We've reached a point in the 
development of our aviation system where we can no longer postpone 
action. It is clear that everyone, the administration, Congress, and 
the aviation user groups agree on the need for reform at the FAA.
  At the appropriations committee, we heard Secretary of Transportation 
Federico Pena testify that the Clinton administration's proposal for a 
Government-owned ATC Corporation is the only solution to the problems 
that exist at the FAA. Yet there is near-universal agreement that the 
administration's proposal is no solution at all. The General Accounting 
Office's analysis of the administration's proposal strongly suggests 
the proposal has been rigged with financial assumptions to make the 
concept superficially attractive.
  While I recommend the administration for taking a proactive role in 
FAA reform, the plans has earned almost no support from the industry or 
from Congress. But there has been one positive outcome to the 
discussions about privatizing the nation's ATC system. It has helped 
focus the debate, allowing several common complaints about the FAA to 
emerge.
  My legislation seeks to address those key obstacles which nearly 
everyone agrees are hampering our efforts to keep pace with technology 
and the growth of the aviation industry.
  For example, the DOT structure hinders the FAA from doing its job in 
the most effective manner. By reestablishing an independent FAA, we 
eliminate the many layers of review by Department of Transportation 
political appointees and their staffs. While no former FAA 
Administrator supports the ATC Corporation proposal, restoring FAA to 
independent status is supported by 10 of the 11 living former FAA 
Administrators.
  My bill provides an independent FAA with the personnel and 
procurement reforms needed to ensure the safety of the users of our 
increasingly complex and busy aviation system. It establishes two pilot 
programs; one to exempt the FAA from procurement regulations which 
hamper its ability to acquire the cutting edge technology it needs, and 
another to exempt FAA from most civil service rules except those 
relating to employee benefits.
  The bill creates a select panel to review and report to Congress on 
innovative funding mechanisms, such as loan guarantees and restructured 
grant programs, to ensure that the money is there for future 
improvements of the Nation's aviation infrastructure.
  My bill will establish a management advisory board made up of high-
level industry representatives to advise the Administrator on 
management, policy, spending, and regulatory matters. And it will 
mandate that final action must be taken on all FAA rulemakings within 
18 months after the date of their initiation.
  I'm offering my bill as a starting point for developing consensus 
towards a meaningful and realistic reform effort. I hope you will join 
me as I continue to work with the leaders of the aviation community--
the airlines, general aviation, FAA employees--to shape these ideas 
into the kind of package all of us can support.


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