[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 21, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E363-E364]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 LEGISLATION BENEFITS NEBRASKA AIRPORTS

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                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 21, 2000

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member highly commends the following 
March 17, 2000, Omaha World-Herald editorial to his colleagues 
regarding the recently approved, important aviation improvement 
conference report, also known as AIR21, the Aviation Investment and 
Reform Act for the 21st century. The editorial acknowledges that it is 
time for the Aviation Trust Fund to be used solely for airport 
improvements and maintenance, rather than being considered part of the 
general budget. This important change will greatly benefit Nebraska 
airports.

             [From the Omaha World-Herald, March 17, 2000]

                              Air Justice

       The U.S. House of Representatives' over-whelming passage of 
     a bill to spend $40 billion over three years for air-travel 
     improvement is good for airports in general and good for 
     airports in Nebraska and Iowa in particular. It also 
     addresses a point of fundamental fairness.
       For years Congress has bottled up money from the Aviation 
     Trust Fund, which takes in about $10 billion a year in user 
     fees. The central purpose of the fund has been to finance 
     airport improvements and maintenance, and in theory it was 
     earmarked for that. But the money was left unspent as a piece 
     of fiscal sleight-of-hand meant to make federal deficits 
     appear smaller.
       For Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House 
     Transportation Committee, it became almost a moral crusade to 
     get the fund separated from the general budget, with its 
     revenues to be used solely for airport projects. After years 
     of impasse, the Senate agreed that, without actually 
     separating the funds, spending on airports each year will 
     equal or exceed the fund's revenues and interest.
       That looks like a distinction without a difference, but so 
     be it. That's politics. The cork is out of the bottle. At 
     bottom, this was made possible by two factors: (1) The 
     federal government, at least by some accounting methods, is 
     now running surpluses, not deficits. (2) It's an election 
     year--the House passed the measure by better than 3-to-1.
       The legislation also raised the cap on air-port-imposed 
     passenger fees, from $3 to $4.50. This is mostly to the good, 
     since local airports commonly use them for improvements to 
     benefit those same passengers. For the record, that $1.50 
     increase is going to look like $6 on a lot of airline 
     tickets.
       That's because on a round-trip ticket, the fee gets you 
     literally coming and going, and it can be imposed for a 
     maximum of two segments on each flight. Thus, a passenger 
     flying, say from Omaha to Orlando with a stop

[[Page E364]]

     in St. Louis and returning could rack up four of those $1.50 
     increases. (That's up to the individual airports, but it's 
     hard to imagine many of them forgoing the revenue.)
       A dozen airports in Nebraska and Iowa, with Omaha's Eppley 
     Airfield leading the way, will get their federal entitlements 
     doubled over each of the next three years. For Eppley, this 
     means more than $7 million for construction that wasn't there 
     before--just what is needed by an airport whose passenger 
     boardings are expected to double in the next 11 years.
       Some other aspects of the bill are equally welcome.
       Of prime concern, modernizing the nation's decrepit air 
     traffic control system will get a substantial boost, nearly 
     $1 billion per year. In addition, there are provisions to 
     help airlines buy so-called ``regional'' jets, provided they 
     use them to serve small airports. There are funds to help 
     improve the training of airport security checkpoint 
     personnel, as well as money to put emergency locator devices 
     on smaller jets.
       The measure also mandates collision-avoidance systems for 
     cargo planes, adds protections for whistleblowers on safety-
     related issues, and increases penalties against unruly 
     passengers.
       Some critics say that by allowing more flights into some 
     major airports, the bill will increase congestion and 
     compromise safety. but the improved air-traffic handling 
     system should largely address such concerns. And, 
     realistically, it is hard to know how Congress could have put 
     this off much longer in good conscience. By one FAA 
     projection, during the next 11 years the number of large 
     passenger jets needing access to the skies and gate space at 
     airports is expected to grow by half.
       It took too long, but justice has been done. In a practical 
     sense, the money in the Aviation Trust Fund has belonged to 
     air passengers all along. At last, they'll see it coming 
     back.

     

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