[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 16, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S7897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE (for herself and Mr. PRESSLER):
  S. 1960. A bill to require the Secretary of Transportation to 
reorganize the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure that the 
Administration carries out only safety-related functions, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.


              Federal Aviation Administration Legislation

   Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, on June 18, the Secretary of 
Transportation, Federico Pena, called on Congress to ``* * * change the 
FAA charter to give it a single primary mission: safety and only 
safety.'' And that is exactly what the bill I am introducing today, 
along with the distinguished Chairman of the Commerce, Science and 
Transportation Committee, Senator Pressler, will do.
  In light of the many safety concerns that have become public as a 
result of the tragic ValuJet crash, it is important to restate 
Congress' commitment to ensuring the safety of air travel in this 
country. By removing the dual and dueling missions of safety and air 
carrier promotion, as one reporter accurately put it, there will be no 
room for doubt in the minds of the traveling public, or the staff of 
the Federal Aviation Administration that safety is their job--first, 
last and always.
  My bill will require the removal of all nonsafety related duties from 
the FAA. It also requires the Secretary of Transportation to provide 
Congress, within 180 days, with legislation outlining where all the 
nonsafety related duties will be transferred to, within his Department.
  We cannot expect the FAA to regain the trust of the traveling public 
while it maintains the mission to both ensure their safety while at the 
same time continuing to promote the growth of the carriers. The current 
mission of the FAA places it in the untenable position of being both 
the enforcer and the best friend of the airlines--no one can perform 
both roles and do them well.
  The ValuJet crash and the startling information about the safety 
problems at the airline that have come out as a result, only serve to 
clarify the need for this legislation. If FAA is to learn its lesson 
from this tragedy, and to meet the Secretary's call for zero accidents, 
it must turn its attention to improving training for its inspectors, to 
providing a better way to track problems at airlines and to design a 
more systematic approach to inspections--in other words, to return 
their attention to safety issues. My bill will require them to do just 
that.
  There have been those who have stated that removing the promotion of 
air carriers from the mandate is simply a word fix, that it will change 
nothing. The FAA needs to be changed if it is to meet the challenges of 
the coming new century. A Boeing study projects that if worldwide 
aviation maintains the same level of safety that it has for the past 5 
years, by 2013 we can expect to lose an aircraft worldwide every 8 
days. A very sobering statistic.
  The bill I am introducing today with Senator Pressler should serve as 
Congress' wake up call to the FAA. And it will be the job of Congress 
to make sure that the agency moves beyond the status quo to embrace the 
safety only mandate, as well as to provide them with the resources 
necessary to step up enforcement and improve their training programs.
  No one should be promoting an unsafe airline. And by limiting its 
role to improving the safety of U.S. air carriers, the FAA will be 
providing the best reason to purchase a ticket--a safe trip.
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