[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 117 (Friday, August 1, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10932-S10935]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               AVIATION ADMINISTRATION CONFERENCE REPORT

  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, yesterday and this morning I placed holds 
on the nominations of 15 men and women

[[Page S10933]]

for appointments in the executive branch. They have one characteristic 
in common. They all come from States of Senators or Members of the 
House of Representatives who have signed the Federal Aviation 
Administration conference report. This report, which will come before 
the Senate and the House after the August recess, steals the rightful 
authority of the Minnesota Metropolitan Airports Commission, which is a 
public body, its members appointed by the Governor, to make decisions 
about the lives of Minnesotans who live near our major international 
airport. The Report would prohibit Federal funds from being used for 
noise insulation of homes or apartment buildings where the airplane 
noise ranges from 60 to 64 decibels.
  This clause was not in the Senate bill and it was not in the House 
bill. It was neither considered nor acted upon by either body, nor by 
any of the committees of jurisdiction in the Senate or the House. There 
was no public notification about this intent. There were no hearings, 
no testimony, nothing about this particular clause.
  It appears in the conference report reportedly because a lobbyist 
representing a client found a Senator from another State far removed 
from my State, where citizens will bear the burdens and the 
consequences of this action. To slip this contemptible language into 
the final conference report, which will become, if it is acted 
favorably upon by the Senate and House, the final bill, the law of the 
land if the President signs it, this action reminds me of the old 
contest called limbo, where the object was to ``see how low you could 
go.'' This action is very low. It is low because it is a perversion of 
our public process for making laws which govern the lives of the 
citizens of this country; in this case, the lives of people who live in 
over 8,000 homes and over 3,200 apartments which surround the 
Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airport.
  Some 300 years ago, even before the formation of this democracy, one 
of the first leaders of English settlers arriving here was William 
Penn. He wrote that people are free under a government where the laws 
rule and the people are a party to those laws. Those are the two 
conditions under which the people are free.
  The several thousand people who would be affected by this clause if 
it were to become law--and it will not become law--were not a party to 
that decision because the people they elected to represent them in 
Congress, their two Senators and their Congressman, were not a party to 
this clause. I am not myself a supporter of the idea of a unicameral 
legislative body, but if there were ever consideration given, this 
would be exhibit number 1 in support of one, because a unicameral 
legislative body would eliminate these conference committees, where a 
few Members of the House and Senate go into some back room or private 
office and write one final bill out of the two versions passed by the 
Senate and the House, and then the rest of us--all of the elected 
Senators and Representatives--have to vote that final report up or 
down, with no changes, no additions, no subtractions.
  Conference committees recently have taken a very dangerous turn. The 
Democratic conferees are being excluded from their deliberations and 
decisions. Republicans make up the majority of the conferees from both 
the House and Senate, as they should because they hold the majority in 
both bodies. So if those Republican conferees concur among themselves, 
they will prevail on every vote, and they will get the final bill they 
want to create. They have that right based on the rules of the Senate 
and the House.
  For some reason, however, that is not enough these days because, 
increasingly, the Democratic conferees are not allowed in meetings 
where those deliberations and decisions are being made. They are not 
even allowed to object or agree, or to try to persuade otherwise. I 
have to ask myself, as someone who has been here only 2\1/2\ years, why 
is it they are not even allowed to participate? Is it to make it easier 
to sneak in these kinds of terrible additions to bills that will become 
law and hope they won't be noticed by the rest of us before the final 
bill is acted upon?
  This exclusion from the process and the inclusion of another 
provision that was not previously passed by the Senate or the House, to 
privatize this Nation's air traffic control system, which ranks as one 
of the most unwarranted, unjustified, destructive, and dangerous ideas 
of this new century, were the major reasons that not a single 
Democratic conferee from either the Senate or the House signed the FAA 
conference report. There were 38 conferees--24 Republicans and 14 
Democrats. All 24 Republicans signed the conference report. None of the 
Democrats, out of 14 Democratic conferees, signed that conference 
report.
  So much for ``changing the tone'' in Washington. So much for 
``bipartisanship.'' So much for honest Government reflecting the will 
of the people, who elected all of us to represent them in the Senate 
and in the House. The majority caucus of the Senate is comprised of 51 
Members, and the minority caucus has 49 members. If the then-incumbent 
senior Senator from Minnesota had not been killed in a plane crash last 
October, the Senate would be 50/50 evenly divided, as it was when I 
arrived here 2\1/2\ years ago. The people of America have recently 
voted for a closely divided Government, to which the 2000 Presidential 
election also bears witness to.
  It is fundamentally wrong for the barely majority party to usurp the 
responsibility for good government, and in conformance to the expressed 
political will of the American people. It is terribly wrong to do so 
for the purpose of writing bills behind closed doors and putting in 
garbage like this airport noise clause, which affects the people of 
Minnesota. They ought to be ashamed, they should be better than that, 
and they ought to stop doing it.
  Where does this legislative dropping come from? Reportedly, I have 
heard from several sources, it was added by a Senate conferee. Neither 
my Minnesota colleague nor I were aware of it, which obviously was the 
intent of both its author and originator. I am deeply offended that one 
of my colleagues would behave in such an underhanded fashion and harm 
the people in my State for no apparent reason.
  What would induce another Member of the Senate to do something like 
that? Now, he didn't make up the idea by himself. We have enough to do 
in these jobs that we don't have to hunt for issues affecting airports 
in other States to make our sneak attacks upon--at least I hope not. We 
have our disagreements here, as we should. We have our political 
arguments, as we must. But I certainly hope we are not here to do 
damage to people in other Members' States.
  If we are going to engage in such a practice, I certainly expect that 
we will all have the integrity to do so in the proper and public 
lawmaking processes of this Senate and this Congress. I certainly 
expect the decency to be informed by my colleague that he intends to do 
so. If that integrity and that decency do not prevail here, then the 
former Chaplain of the Senate, Dr. Edward Everett Hale, was right when 
asked if he prayed for the Senators. ``No,'' the Senate Chaplain 
replied, ``I look at the Senators and pray for the country.''
  The Senate Chaplain spoke those words 100 years ago. I believe, and 
for the sake of our country I pray, that the Senate of 2003 is far 
better than the Senate of 1903, if that is what caused the Chaplain 
then to make such a remark. Let all of us be sure to make it better 
today by our own conduct here.
  There is someone else who is also responsible for this sneaky, slimy, 
and sordid shenanigan, and that, I regret to say, is Northwest 
Airlines, a major Minnesota company, founded in Minnesota, 
headquartered in Minnesota, employing over 18,000 people in Minnesota. 
It is one of Minnesota's most important companies. It is our link to 
the world.
  Northwest Airlines controls 85 percent of the gates at the 
Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. It is comprised of 18,000 tremendous 
people in Minnesota--executives, pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, 
baggage handlers, reservation agents, skycaps. One by one they are 
great people: hard working, dedicated, loyal, courteous, and skilled in 
what they do.
  As a corporate entity, however, Northwest Airlines more often acts 
like Darth Vader than the Caped Crusader. The company is capable of 
wonderful acts of charity. Last year it helped to transport 10,000 
boxes of Girl

[[Page S10934]]

Scout cookies to soldiers stationed abroad. Every quarter it partners 
with a worthwhile charity, and on every flight it asks passengers to 
donate either their money or accumulated frequent flier miles, 
equivalent to money, to that worthwhile cause.
  However, during my entire public career, going back 25 years as 
Minnesota's commissioner of economic development to being a Senator 
today, no other Minnesota company has ever asked for as much from the 
public, received as much from the public, asked as much again and again 
from the public, received as much again and again from the public, and 
showed as little gratitude, graciousness, or respect for the public as 
Northwest Airlines.
  In 1989, Northwest Airlines was subject to a hostile takeover. A 
company that at the time had a cash balance of over $700 million became 
one saddled with over $2 billion in corporate debt. With the economic 
downturn that began in 1990 and went into 1991, Northwest fell into 
serious financial difficulty and was near bankruptcy, we were informed. 
That condition was caused by loss of revenues compounded by the debt 
load of their takeover. So Northwest Airlines came to the people of 
Minnesota for help, and the people of Minnesota responded.
  The Minnesota Legislature authorized $710 million in grants and in 
low-interest secured loans. The Metropolitan Airports Commission 
essentially remortgaged the airport to provide a loan of $350 million. 
That is the same Metropolitan Airports Commission which Northwest 
Airlines now criticizes for every spending decision, for its supposed 
lack of frugality, forgetting it would be even more frugal if it had 
saved the cost of carrying that loan for the last 12 years.

  At the same time as that corporate bailout by the people of 
Minnesota, our State also began a 7-year agreed-upon timetable, a dual-
track process to decide where to locate the new airport for our State 
and for the entire region: whether it should be the expansion of the 
existing airport or building a new one at a more remote site.
  By the mid-1990s, in the middle of that timetable, based on the 
seeming experience of the costly new airport in Denver and its effects 
financially on the airline industry, particularly those who had their 
hubs there, Northwest Airlines took a legitimate position in its own 
corporate interest to oppose building a new airport elsewhere. But they 
were so insistent on getting their own way that they convinced the 
Governor and the Minnesota Legislature to abrogate after 6 years the 
final year of that intended 7-year process, cutting off the last year 
of public debate, cutting off the opportunity by those who are opposed 
to that decision, those who lived in the surrounding areas who were 
plagued by airport noise. They were denied their opportunities to make 
their last cases to the public decision makers.
  Their lives were being made worse also, I note, by the noise of 
Northwest Airlines' aging fleet of airplanes, the oldest of any of the 
major carriers at the time, which were not being replaced by the newer 
planes originally on order because of the financial difficulties that 
the corporate takeover put on the company. But at least in this 
instance, Northwest went through the public process, and they 
prevailed.
  As part of that agreement, they reportedly agreed to contribute $70 
million to this next phase of noise insulation of homes and apartments 
in the surrounding areas. Northwest was hard hit on September 11, 2001, 
and its aftermath, as were other air carriers in this country, as were 
many other businesses throughout this country, many of which went out 
of business as a result of the disruption to our economy caused by 
those dastardly events.
  They sought financial assistance from this body and from the 
institution of Congress. On September 22, Congress provided $5 billion 
of grants to the airline carriers, of which Northwest Airlines received 
$428 million in public funds, grant money, not to be repaid.
  On April 3 of this year, as part of the supplemental appropriation, 
this body, and its counterpart, authorized another $2.3 billion in 
grant money of which Northwest Airlines will receive $205 million. In 
addition, we granted a 4-month ticket tax holiday. I supported every 
single one of those measures, and if Northwest Airlines' survival were 
at stake, I would support it again because it would be in the interests 
of both the company and the people of Minnesota.
  For a company to be the recipient of all of that public support, to 
receive all of that support from this institution of Congress, and then 
show so little respect for the public and so little regard for the 
Congress or for the integrity of our public process, I find to be 
deplorable, detestable, and deranged.
  The money this airline company seeks to prohibit being expended to 
improve the lives of their neighbors in Minnesota is not their money. 
It is the public's money. It is Federal money that comes from general 
funds, from ticket taxes or from passenger taxes. It is beyond 
irresponsible for any one person or any one corporation to try to 
destroy the public will expressed through the legitimate public process 
by this kind of back-door maneuver. No one has that right. No one 
deserves to have that right. And no one who shows such disrespect and 
disregard for our Democratic process, which exists to represent the 
interests of all of the people of this country, to protect the best 
interests of all the people of this country, no one who tries to 
abrogate that democratic authority should get away with it. They must 
not get away with it. It is too destructive to our democracy if they 
do. It is too damaging to our citizens' faith in their Government and 
to their trust in their Government, which is their Government.
  Northwest Airlines will not get away with this deviant, dastardly, 
and undemocratic action. Northwest Airlines will not get its way this 
way. This deed will not stand. It will not become law. The people of 
Minnesota have my word, it will not become law.
  Before I began these remarks, I withdrew my 15 holds on those 
executive branch nominations at the specific request of the White 
House, out of my respect. I am mindful that a year ago, when I put 60 
holds on nominations for various executive positions, the White House 
staff responded in a most impressive way.
  They worked with my office and other Senators' offices to rescue over 
200 Cambodian orphans from orphanages in Cambodia who were being 
prevented by the INS to be brought to this country by their adoptive 
parents.
  To the great credit of the President of the United States, the White 
House used his ultimate authority to override that decision by INS and 
to make it possible for those children to come to loving homes in 
Minnesota and other States; and for that reason, and for my respect 
generally, I yielded to that specific request by the White House and 
withdrew those 15 holds.
  I have equally the greatest regard for this institution of the 
Senate, for all of its procedures, its protocols, and its proud 
traditions.
  I listened earlier today to the words of the majority leader, a man 
whom I greatly respect. By his invitation, I was privileged to 
accompany him to China, Taiwan, Japan, and the Republic of Korea 2 
months ago. I watched with the greatest of admiration how he led our 
delegation and sat down face to face with some of the most important 
leaders of other nations in this world. He brought nothing but great 
credit to this Senate. He and his predecessor in that position, now the 
Democratic leader, Senator Daschle are two men with dignity and with 
honor. I am in awe of their continual patience. When they have 
disagreements about policy or legislation, they are honest and they are 
honorable. We have debates. We have votes and the majority prevails.

  I also respect the desire of the majority leader to proceed with an 
orderly schedule which he outlined when we return in September. In 
fact, I share that desire. But I must give fair warning and advance 
notice that I will not permit the Senate to proceed with business as 
usual when we return on September 2, while this FAA conference report, 
with this poisonous paragraph a part of it, is before the Senate. I 
will put a hold on every nomination that comes before the Senate. I 
will object to every motion to proceed after the prayer and the Pledge 
of Allegiance, and I will not yield on those matters until this 
language is removed from that conference report. You have my word.
  We have over a month until we return. That is plenty of time for 
those who are party to this detestable act, to

[[Page S10935]]

work it out and to get it out of that conference report.
  Do not doubt my resolve. That language must be removed or I will not 
allow the business of the Senate to proceed. You have my word. You have 
my word.
  I yield the floor.

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