[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 96 (Tuesday, July 16, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1269]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             H.R. 3479, THE NATIONAL AVIATION CAPACITY ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. JERRY F. COSTELLO

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 15, 2002

  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3479, the 
National Aviation Capacity Act. This legislation was introduced by my 
good friend, Mr. Lipinski, and I would like to thank him for his hard 
work. I am pleased to join him as a cosponsor of this legislation.
  O'Hare is a tremendously important airport in not only to Chicago and 
the Midwest, but also our entire national aviation system. It recently 
reclaimed the title of the world's busiest airport and is the only 
airport to serve as a hub for two major airlines. O'Hare serves 190,000 
travelers and operates 2,700 flights daily, employs 50,000 people and 
generates $37 billion in annual economic activity.
  However, O'Hare needs to be redesigned to meet today's demands. It is 
laid out with seven runways, six of which intersect at least one other 
runway. The modernization plan would add one new runway. The seven 
existing runways will be reconfigured to include a southern runway for 
a total of eight runways, of which six would be parallel. These 
improvements would have a significant impact on reducing delays and 
cancellations: bad weather delays would decrease by 95 percent and 
overall delays would decrease by 79 percent.
  On December 5, 2001, Mayor Daley and Governor Ryan reached a historic 
agreement to expand and improve O'Hare airport. The agreement would 
modernize O'Hare, create western access to the airport, provide 
additional funds for soundproofing home and schools near O'Hare, move 
forward with the construction of a third Chicago airport at the Peotone 
site and keep Meigs Field open until at least 2006, and likely until 
2026.,
  H.R. 3479 would simply codify the deal so that a future governor does 
not rescind the agreement. Illinois is in a unique situation because 
the governor does have veto power. If this legislation is not enacted, 
it is possible that a future governor could undo all the hard work that 
the current governor and mayor of Chicago have done to reach this 
agreement.
  There is some concern that this legislation sets a precedent by 
involving the federal government or creating a short-cut around 
environmental laws. Again, O'Hare is an exceptional situation which 
requires this limited federal action. Other cities and airport 
authorities do not have a governor with veto authority over this issue. 
The city of Chicago does not want the federal government to take over 
the modernization of O'Hare but the language is included in case the 
State delays the State Implementation Plan (SIP) of the Clean Air Act 
to slow down the project. The language granting priority consideration 
for a Letter of Intent from the FAA for Peotone is no different than 
language that can be found in any Transportation Appropriations bill.
  Regarding environmental concerns, the bill says that implementation 
shall be subject to federal laws with respect to environmental 
protection and analysis, and that the environmental reviews will go 
forward in an expedited way. There is no attempt to go around existing 
state or federal environmental laws, and this legislation has the 
support of many environmental groups.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation will allow the much-needed expansion of 
O'Hare to move forward. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting 
this bill.

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