[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 151 (Friday, October 24, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S13205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           RUNWAY INCURSIONS

  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to 
clarify language included in the Transportation, Treasury and General 
Government Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2004. My distinguished 
colleague, the Chairman of the Transportation Appropriations 
Subcommittee, Senator Shelby, worked to ensure that important funding 
was provided for the Federal Aviation Administration to address the 
problem of runway incursions at our Nation's airports.
  I share his concern about reports of runway incursions and surface 
incidents. It is my hope that the FAA will use the funding provided to 
them to test new technologies that could significantly improve this 
situation. Testing at one of the 90 ``hot spot'' airports identified by 
the FAA should include accurate and reliable non-cooperative sensors, 
such as millimeter wave sensors, that can form a distributed radar and 
optical identification local network. The technologies tested should 
also include synchronized 2D and 3D graphic displays.
  I would ask the chairman to clarify the funding provided by the 
subcommittee to address runway incursion prevention devices at our 
Nation's airports.
  Mr. SHELBY. Indeed, my colleague from Mississippi is correct. The 
Senate bill does include funding for the Federal Aviation 
Administration to address problems of runway incursions, and it is my 
hope the FAA will perform testing as the Senator from Mississippi 
described.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. Chairman, thank you for clarifying this issue and 
for your leadership and support in addressing this important issue.

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