[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 11, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ENSURING THE SAFETY OF AIR TRAVEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, tonight I have been listening 
to my colleagues, and they are talking about privatization of Social 
Security. I am actually here to speak about the attempts to privatize 
our air traffic controllers.
  I do not know why everyone keeps thinking that privatizing is the 
best thing in the world. When I started working down here in 
Washington, I have to fly a lot, and with that, I certainly see what 
goes on in our airports; but I also had the opportunity to spend time 
in the tower.
  I spent time at JFK Airport in New York; and it just so happened when 
I was there, a terrible storm came in, and what happens an awful lot of 
times in our towers, with the equipment that they are using, it fails 
and yet our traffic controllers were right there and were using the 
equipment or the hand stuff that they have used for 20 years; and to 
watch these men and women work, they are absolutely wonderful.
  When we start talking about privatization, this is not the answer. We 
have dedicated people keeping our skies safe, and if anybody needs any 
reminder about that, think about September 11. Our air traffic 
controllers around this Nation landed over 5,000 planes within a 
certain amount of hours without any kind of incident. Think about that.
  My concern also is if we are going to think about privatizing our air 
traffic controllers, is it going to be a bottom line. These are 
dedicated people. I spend time with them because they are always saying 
the equipment is not working. This past weekend we read about the FAA 
putting new equipment into some of our airports, and then they are the 
first ones to say it has got bugs in it. We are going to put it in 
anyway, and we are going to work the bugs out. I personally would 
rather have the men and women of air traffic controllers working the 
bugs out before they have to lean on using it.
  With that, my colleagues on this side of the aisle and hopefully the 
other side of the aisle will work to make sure we do not privatize our 
air traffic controllers. It is not the answer, and it is not cost 
efficient. The men and women that serve this country, keeping our 
planes safe and keeping us all safe, certainly deserve, and by the way, 
if we start looking at trying to get people to work in New York and 
certain other areas of the country, they do not want to go there. They 
just do not want to go there because the work is so hard, and yet our 
people are there every single day, minute by minute, watching every 
single plane in this country; and the only thing that they are 
concerned about is the safety of their citizens that are in the planes.
  We should do everything, everything in the world to make sure that we 
do not privatize. As I said earlier, privatizing everything is not the 
answer to the problems that we are facing. What we should be doing is 
having better working conditions for these men and women and giving 
them the equipment that they need.

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