[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 35 (Thursday, March 11, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1427-S1428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FAA REAUTHORIZATION

  Mr. DORGAN. I assume we will report the FAA reauthorization bill 
shortly, and I believe Senator Rockefeller will be on his way. He is 
chairing the Commerce Committee hearing right now. I will go over and 
chair the hearing in his stead when he comes to the floor.
  Prior to bringing the bill to the floor today or prior to making it 
the order of the day, let me just speak in morning business before we 
get to the bill.
  I wanted to talk just for a minute. Yesterday, I talked about what is 
in the FAA reauthorization bill. Much of what we will discuss today is 
about commercial aviation--getting on an airliner someplace and flying 
across the country or across the world. But I wanted to mention that 
there is another component to this, and that is what is called general 
aviation.
  General aviation is a very large and increasingly important component 
of air travel in this country. In a State such as my home State of 
North Dakota, which is a very large State and one that does not have a 
great deal of interstate commercial airline service, the use of private 
planes is very prevalent, and general aviation plays a very significant 
role in our economy.
  I learned to fly many years ago. I am not a current pilot at all. I 
was not even very good at it, I don't think. But I learned to fly and 
got out of the airplane one day, when the instructor said: You are 
ready. And I took off and wore this metal suit with an engine attached 
and got up about 5,000 or 6,000 feet and practiced stalls, steep turns, 
and the things that you do. So I understand a little about flying an 
airplane. It is an extraordinary thing.
  The private pilots who have an airplane in their hangar out on the 
farm or in a town and the small business man or woman who has a Cessna 
210 or perhaps a Cirrus or a Piper or any number of other small 
airplanes, single-engine, twin-engine, use those planes every day in 
every way for very important purposes--to travel around the State and 
the country to do commerce, to haul parts, to haul people. It is a very 
significant contribution to our economy. It is estimated that $150 
billion annually is added to our economy by general aviation. It is 
also estimated that there are about 1.2 million jobs in America from 
general aviation.
  I know the thoughts people have about general aviation are 
immediately to go to: OK, here is a big corporation flying a G-5 and 
sipping Cristal and eating strawberries dipped in chocolate, flying 
across the country. The fact is, big corporations do have airplanes 
that move their executives around. In most cases, they do that because 
they want to be at a meeting in Los Angeles in the morning and in 
Dallas in the afternoon and an evening meeting in New York. The only 
way they do that is through the use of private planes. It makes them 
much more effective and much more efficient. I understand that.
  But much more than the large corporate jet that is flying people 
around this country, it is the smaller planes of general aviation that 
are used in all of our States in many ways across this country. You 
know, it is true that, yes, the corporate planes and the smaller 
private planes in general aviation every day are flying organ 
transplants around, flying hearts and so on around to be transplanted 
at a hospital; to reunite combat troops with their families; to take 
someone for cancer treatment, to an urgent appointment with a cancer 
specialist. All of that is the case. I understand that.
  So what I wanted to say is that the use of general aviation and the 
extensive impact it has on our economy is

[[Page S1428]]

something we also should discuss and describe in this bill. The 
legislation we have created has things that are so important to all of 
aviation--yes, commercial aviation, but to general aviation and to 
private pilots as well.
  The investment, for example, in airport infrastructure, the building 
of and maintaining of runways in communities that don't have scheduled 
airline service but do have a lot of activity with private pilots 
flying in and out is very important. The general aviation portion is 
important. Six hundred general aviation airplanes have now brought 
fresh doctors, relief services, workers, equipment, and supplies to the 
country of Haiti. Six hundred private airplanes have flown in and 
landed at airports--in most cases, airstrips--other than the airstrip 
at Port-au-Prince. That is a story that needs to be told. I have great 
admiration for the pilots, particularly the older pilots who have been 
around and used to fly those airplanes when there weren't many rules. 
They kind of chafe at the rules. When you meet with pilots, the older 
they are, the more they chafe at the fact that there are now rules 
because in the old days you would jump in an airplane and run off, and 
you could do almost anything.
  We do have rules and regulations and general aviation subscribes to 
them willingly and ably. It is an important part of our aviation 
system.
  I wish to mention as well Senator Rockefeller, chairman of the 
committee, is now in the Chamber, and I will chair the Commerce 
Committee hearing that is underway. I would like to take a couple 
minutes to retrace what I described yesterday. This legislation, the 
FAA Reauthorization Act, has been extended 11 times. Rather than 
passing the bill, we have extended it 11 times. Finally, at long last, 
with the leadership of Senator Rockefeller and Senator Hutchison and 
the work that I and Senator DeMint did on the Aviation Subcommittee, we 
have a bill on the floor, and we want to get it done. We want to get to 
conference and finally reauthorize FAA programs. We are talking about 
investment in infrastructure, jobs, aviation safety. All that is 
critically important. I have held a number of hearings now on the issue 
of aviation safety.
  The skies, particularly with respect to the record of commercial 
airlines, are very safe. We have a great record with respect to 
aviation safety. There is no question about that. But we are learning 
as well along the way from the last accident that occurred in this 
country that tragically killed 50 people, landing on a winter evening 
in icy conditions going into Buffalo, NY. I have held hearings on that. 
I have studied it. I have read the transcript of the cockpit voice 
recorder. I know a fair amount about the crash. What I know is pretty 
disconcerting. Let me describe a few things.
  That was a Dash 8 propeller airplane, flying in ice at night. The 
pilot had not slept in a bed for the two previous evenings. The copilot 
had not slept in a bed the previous evening. The copilot was a person 
earning somewhere between $20,000 and $23,000 a year, living in 
Seattle, and the work station was flying out of Newark.
  That copilot flew all the way from Seattle, deadheaded on a FedEx jet 
that landed in Memphis, flew all night to go to work at Newark. The 
pilot flew up from Florida in order to fly on that Colgan route. But 
you had two people in the cockpit, according to testimony, the captain 
of which had not slept in a bed. There was no record of his sleeping in 
a bed. He was in the crew lounge, where there is no bed. The captain 
hadn't slept in a bed for 2 days and the copilot for 1 day. They had 
inadequate training, with respect to stick shakers and other related 
issues. The fact is, there are a series of things that have now led us 
to understand that fatigue is an issue. There is a rulemaking on 
fatigue going on right now.
  Administrator Babbitt has now sent that to the Office of Management 
and Budget. That is important. Training is an issue, critically 
important.
  Commuting is an issue. I wish to put up this chart. This shows where 
Colgan pilots commute in order to go to work. They commute from all 
over the country to Newark. There clearly is a fatigue factor. There 
has to be some action taken on a range of these issues--training, 
fatigue, sterile cockpits, which were violated on this flight, training 
in icing, a whole series of things such as those. There is a most 
wanted list at the NTSB that has said: Here is what you must do. That 
most wanted list, for 15 or 18 years, has had icing and fatigue on that 
list, and the FAA has not taken appropriate action. I will speak more 
about this, but I do have to go spell Senator Kerry, who is now 
chairing the Commerce Committee.
  Senator Rockefeller, chairman of the committee is here, as is the 
Senator from Texas.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. VITTER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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