[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 138 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11856-S11857]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION REAUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I just returned to the city a short time 
ago, and I am sorry I did not hear the arguments earlier today relative 
to the FAA authorization bill, nor did I have an opportunity to hear my 
distinguished colleague from Massachusetts and all of his comments, but 
I was interested as I walked in to hear him talk about safety.
  Mr. President, there is a special interest. My colleague was talking 
about a special interest. There is a special interest that I would like 
to represent that is best delineated by none other than Mark Twain. 
Mark Twain said, ``Truth is such a precious thing it should be used 
very sparingly.'' I represent that special interest of truth on this 
particular matter, and the facts will sustain it.
  What happens is we had the ICC Termination Act last year, and in the 
engrossing, the final drafting up of the document for the President's 
signature, everyone had gone. There was just staff there checking. Here 
is a case of the railway express being sent to the lawyer at ICC who 
said, ``I think you can just leave that out.'' The two little words 
``express carrier'' were deleted from the ICC Termination Act.
  However, there is no question, no one knows of this. I challenge the 
Senator from Massachusetts who feels so strongly and wants to tell us 
about cases he can read to the Members, I challenge the Senator to 
point to me, the Senator point to me, the House Member, who said I 
wanted to make sure I introduced it, or I brought it up or I discussed 
it.

  The reason I emphasize that, because my colleague now talks about 
jamming, and at the last minute changing and whatever it is. What the 
Senator from South Carolina wants to do is correct that jamming, if 
that is what it was. He said it was intended. I have not seen the CRS 
opinion, but I will get it. That specifically is in contradiction to 
the Termination Act.
  I will read from the act of 1995, December 15, just last year, 
section 10501 ``General Jurisdiction.'' ``The enactment of the ICC 
Termination Act of 1995 shall neither expand nor contract coverage of 
employees and employers by the Railway Labor Act.''
  So, there is a manifest intent of the Congress. They were not 
affecting rights that now we are trying to grab and change around. 
Heavens above, since this institution, Federal Express is an air 
carrier, has been, to the surprise of many, governed by the Railway 
Labor Act.
  In fact, they had a hearing on the day he is talking about over in 
Philadelphia and they have already ruled. They ruled November 22, 1995, 
that Federal Express had taken the right position. They did not rely on 
the express language in the ICC Act, but general law where they find 
them both as an air carrier and as an express carrier. Everyone that 
has practiced in this particular field will tell you that is the format 
of law. Some will contend, what is the matter if the law has not 
changed? I am trying to change an ambiguity, but more than that, I am 
trying my best to forestall an assault on the truth and the facts, an 
assault a bunch of Washington lawyers trying to take advantage of a 
mistake.
  Teamsters--I keep hearing in the Halls, ``the Teamsters, the 
Teamsters, the Teamsters'' have the Senator from Massachusetts all 
balled up on this and he has to go to bat for them. I have more 
Teamsters than any kind of Federal Express, just with regular delivery 
services, I imagine. We have $100 million United Parcel Service 
facility there and the finest Teamster crowd you have ever seen. We 
have them at Owens Corning and Mack Truck, and otherwise they have been 
very supportive of this Senator. They have not told me of a conflict. 
Another Senator earlier today said just exactly that.
  The idea that we are coming here at the last minute--what happened 
after that, the mistake was determined at the end of February or the 
beginning of March over on the House side. When they learned that, Mr. 
President, they put in a measure which was blocked. I was asked--
because I am the ranking member of the particular committee with the 
ICC, as the distinguished Presiding Officer knows--``Well, it happened 
on your watch; do you mind correcting this mistake,'' and I say, ``Not 
at all.''
  I presented it in the Appropriations Committee we had an 11-11 vote, 
not 10-10. I did not have the proxies or we would have passed it, and 
the mistake would have been corrected. I did not bother with it. I 
thought everybody would want to correct an innocent mistake.
  Come now, Mr. President, with the idea we are trying to jam or hold 
up safety legislation or the FAA bill, or this is not the place for it, 
and everything else at the last minute is totally out of the whole 
cloth. They know differently. They are playing their political 
strength.

  I do not know that Federal Express has got much political clout 
because they are not in South Carolina, and I am not that familiar with 
them, but I do know that I am not only keenly interested in the truth 
but I am interested in the operation. I might as well plead guilty on 
this score because, Mr. President, 10 years ago when I was trying to 
find hay for the farmers and

[[Page S11857]]

their herds down in South Carolina I finally located some up in 
Massachusetts. I called over to the White House, as other Senators were 
calling, and the White House said, ``Senator, there is no hay for 
you.'' ``There is no plane for you.'' I said, ``Come on, Senator so and 
so.'' ``You do not understand, Senator, there is no plane for you.''
  I said heavens above, I commented in the cloakroom to a few of my 
colleagues, that was a heck of a note. I had the hay. I had the cattle 
that were starving and the farmers that were ready. But the phone rang 
and there was a fellow named Freddy Smith from Federal Express. He had 
heard about it and we called, and the next thing you know, he had two 
planes, Federal Express planes, bring it down one Sunday.
  I had my commission of labor--the 4-H Club, and all of us there, my 
wife and myself--and we unloaded the hay all Sunday morning and 
afternoon. I said, ``I will never forget that fellow.'' So when they 
told me about the innocent mistake and told me it involved Freddy 
Smith, I got a very, very strong feeling about this.
  I am not going to yield to the nonsense and mythical chicanery that 
is coming about here because they have the political clout. I know he 
said Republican. No Republican put this in. Democrat Hollings put it 
in. It was not sneaked in or jammed in. We discussed it several times. 
It was an appropriate measure for it. In the conference, it was 8 to 2 
in the vote to put it in. It passed by a strong vote on the House side.
  He is trying to make it a partisan thing, which is unfortunate, 
because right is right and wrong is wrong. Here is the intent put in 
there, and I am going to get the decisions made because I have been 
called over now. I didn't think we were going to have to try to cave in 
for the truth around here. But right this minute as they talk about 
that case, the mediation board back in November 1995 ruled against 
them. It isn't trying to try a new practice. If you can get a choke 
point in one little town and close down a whole thing, you have no 
express service. And in the interest of express service, that is what 
is intended by the Congress. We are not trying to get anything new. We 
are trying to get something contained and maintained in the law that 
has allowed this particular airline carrier to flourish and grow. There 
is nothing new about this. We are trying to get it back.
  As stated in the statute itself--I emphasis by reading it the second 
time--the enactment of the ICC Termination Act of 1995 shall neither 
expand nor contract coverage of employees and employers by the Railway 
Labor Act.
  Now, who is trying to sneak in or jam or get something changed? If it 
is Hollings, he is trying to get it for the truth. He is trying to get 
back to the facts. He is not trying to get an advantage or 
disadvantage. He is trying to get back to the intent of Congress.
  We were there. The Senator from Massachusetts is not on that 
committee. He is not on that conference. But he talks like now we are 
jamming it, and everything else of that kind. I am not going to let 
that rat-a-tat go by on this floor. I have got good time here. I know 
about the FAA. It is on my committee. I can tell you that right now. 
The FAA has not only its grants given to the airports, it has its trust 
funds to operate in a certain measure the airports. It has its trust 
funds for the safety devices and otherwise in there.
  So I can tell you, it is not done for one company, and we have to 
have hearings. Come on, that ought to be ashes in their mouths. Have 
hearings? When did they have hearings to delete? Who called the 
hearings? Name the Senator. Name the House Member. Name the committee. 
They have the unmitigated gall to come here and act like it is orderly 
procedure; now let us get hearings when they have done the sneaking and 
they have done the jamming. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.
  I yield the floor.

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