[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 11 (Friday, January 22, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S927]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE AIR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT ACT

 Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, earlier this week, I joined the 
Chairman and Ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation in introducing the Air Transportation 
Improvement Act. While I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this 
legislation, I am sorry that we are in the position of introducing a 
bill that should have been passed last year. Due to a number of 
unfortunate circumstances, including the unqualified mess at the end of 
the 105th Congress where 8 out of the 13 appropriations bills had to be 
lumped into a single massive bill, the Congress failed to complete its 
duty to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and 
related programs in the regular order of doing business. As a result, 
the FAA and important infrastructure programs such as the Airport 
Improvement Programs, were only extended until the end of March 1999. 
Thus, we are forced to begin the new Congress by taking up last year's 
business.
  The FAA bill introduced yesterday needs to be one of the first 
priorities of this Congress. This is the case not only because of the 
pressing deadline of the short term extension, but also because this 
legislation contains some very important policy initiatives that will 
inject more airline competition and improve air service to small 
communities. While I support the general thrust of this legislation, I 
still believe that we need to consider some adjustments to this 
legislation. In particular, I believe that the Small Community Air 
Service Development Program established under this legislation is too 
modest in size to have much of an impact. Since the deregulation of the 
airline industry two decades ago, hundreds of small communities have 
experienced service degradation and many have lost service altogether. 
Vast geographic regions of our country have suffered unacceptable 
geographic isolation as the airlines have withdrawn service in smaller 
communities. This trend needs the serious attention of the Congress and 
the Department of Transportation.
  Thanks to the bipartisan cooperation on this legislation among the 
leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee, we have developed the 
Small Community Air Service Development Program which could go a long 
way to address the small community air service problems. However, the 
authorization level proposed in the legislation introduced yesterday 
does not provide adequate enough resources for this demonstration 
program to make much of a difference. I hope that as the Commerce 
Committee works on this bill that we will be able to increase the 
authorization levels for this important new program.
  I also realize that there is some serious controversy surrounding 
some provisions in this bill. It is my hope that we will be able to 
reach some fair compromises over the contentious provisions and that 
this bill will pass the Congress in very short order.
  I want to commend Chairman McCain and Senator Hollings for their 
leadership on this legislation. I know that there is a strong desire on 
both sides of the aisle to work on this legislation and pass it as soon 
as possible.

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