[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 114 (Friday, July 30, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6541-S6543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  AIRLINE SAFETY AND FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION EXTENSION ACT OF 
                                  2010

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, soon I am going to ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 5900. First, I 
want to make a couple of comments.
  H.R. 5900 is a piece of legislation sent to us by the House of 
Representatives that will extend for 2 months the FAA reauthorization 
act. I regret that we have another extension. It is extension after 
extension after extension. It is so symbolic of the way this place 
works these days.
  The reason there is an urgency to get the FAA reauthorization act 
done is that it includes so many significant issues that deal with the 
safety of the air traveling public, with the airport improvement funds, 
with substantial investments in air traffic control modernization--a 
wide range of issues that are very important. Despite the fact that 
everybody understands the urgency, the FAA reauthorization bill is 
stuck in the morass of difficulties that now afflict the Senate and 
House these days. It is very difficult to get anything done.
  The question will be, Will we now--extending this for 2 more months--
at the end of this year adjourn sine die once again without having 
approved an FAA reauthorization bill?
  The Europeans are moving very aggressively on air traffic control 
modernization. I have met with Europeans on these issues. We should be 
doing the same, and yet it is held hostage by not passing an FAA 
reauthorization bill.
  The issue of safety is another very important issue. I have held 
hearing after hearing on the issue of safety. The question is, Do we 
have one standard of safety on airplanes these days as between major 
carriers and regional carriers? When you step onto an airplane that is 
32-passenger or 50-passenger--a regional carrier--do you have the same 
level of safety as is applied with respect to the crew, the training, 
and all the other issues as exists with the major carriers? The law 
requires that; FAA requires that.
  Does it exist? Well, we explored in great detail the crash of Colgan 
Air. We saw, with respect to Colgan Air, one flight on one night--one 
tragic

[[Page S6542]]

night--where 45 passengers got on a Bombardier Dash 8 at La Guardia to 
fly to Buffalo, NY. Flying through the ice that evening, they had their 
wings iced up and they went into a dive and crashed, killing all of the 
passengers on board--a flight attendant, two pilots, and one person on 
the ground as well.
  When we dissected what happened that evening, it was unbelievable. It 
may be that this is one circumstance that has occurred only in that 
situation--I doubt it. Neither pilot had slept in a bed the night 
before. One traveled across the United States from Seattle, WA, to 
Newark, just to reach her duty station to go to work. Think of that, 
traveling all night because it is your commute to your job, from 
Seattle to Newark, and then getting in an airplane and flying. That was 
the copilot who flew the right seat--a person who, a report said, was 
paid $20,000 or $22,000 a year and had to have a second job to make 
ends meet, and who previously lived with her parents because of the low 
salaries paid to pilots on commuter airlines.
  The pilot in the left seat had not slept the night before either. 
Evidence was that he was only in the crew lounge where there are no 
beds. He commuted from Florida, I believe--one of the Florida cities--
to Newark to his work station.
  It is also the case that, as we looked at the transcript of the 
cockpit recording, we found all kinds of very difficult circumstances 
that existed--a discussion by the copilot that she had very little 
training flying in icing. This is someone in a cockpit flying a 
commercial airline saying: I have had very little experience flying in 
icing. We took a look at the records of the pilot and discovered that 
the pilot had failed, on multiple occasions, some key exams, and 
sufficient so that had the airline known, they said: ``We would not 
have hired that pilot had we known of those failures.'' Except the 
pilot's records were not transparent to the airlines. And the list goes 
on. It is about the training regime, stick shakers, stick pushers in 
the cockpit dealing with the circumstances that evening.

  The question is: Was this an isolated incident or have we learned 
something that ought to be very concerning to all of us about safety in 
the skies? We included a number of recommendations in the FAA 
reauthorization bill dealing with safety. Some of those recommendations 
have been sent to us by the House of Representatives today in the 2-
month extension. We will go ahead and adopt those and they will become 
law.
  It does not represent all of the safety issues we have included in 
the Senate FAA reauthorization bill. It represents significant and 
important safety recommendations. It deals with FAA pilot records 
database and access to that database, the number of hours that are 
required for a pilot getting in a cockpit--1,500 hours as opposed to 
the 250 hours. The 1,500 represents what is required by the ATP, and 
that standard is applied in the House bill and also in the discussions 
we have had leading up to this point with the House negotiators.
  We include issues such as the pilot training issues, safety 
inspectors, flight crew member mentoring, development, and leadership--
a range of things that are very important.
  The FAA is also involved separately on issues dealing with fatigue. 
They are not at this point, I believe, dealing with commuting, but I 
think commuting is an issue and has to be dealt with.
  The point is that the FAA reauthorization bill is not now going to be 
passed. We will pass a 60-day extension to the end of September. The 
extension will include the safety provisions I have just described.
  I want to mention as well the families of the victims of the Colgan 
air crash who, in my judgment, need to receive a lot of credit for 
pushing these issues and making certain that those loved ones they lost 
in that crash--I guess whose memory they labor in to try to make these 
kinds of changes and push the Congress to do what is necessary to 
improve safety. I believe the families have done very substantial work 
and very important work.
  At every hearing I have held on the issue of safety, those family 
members have been present. They wear on their lapels and on their suit 
jackets photographs of their loved ones. They are doing that because 
they want to make sure this does not happen again. My heart goes out to 
them. I also say thanks to them for doing the kind of work they have 
done to make sure these issues do not fall by the wayside.
  Let me make one final point. We have now from the period of perhaps 3 
or 4 weeks in September and then a few weeks in a lameduck session to 
get the FAA reauthorization bill done, and if it does not get done, 
then we will have once again failed. I am pretty familiar with that 
kind of failure. I have watched time and time again.
  Without being disrespectful to any of my colleagues, I know there are 
a number of issues that are of concern and of controversy. They deal 
with the issue of the perimeter rule at Washington National Airport--DC 
National--and also the slot provisions at DC National. There are 
differences of opinion in this Chamber. I believe we must resolve them. 
Those issues are not that significant. There has been discussion of 16 
conversions that would not result in additional flights out of DC 
National. It is not a case of somebody saying: Let's have more flights.
  I hope that all of those who are involved in this discussion will 
find a way to reach a compromise. This place does not work without 
compromise. If we have a dozen people digging in their heels telling us 
the way to resolve this issue is my way and if you do not like my way, 
I do not intend to do anything to allow anybody else to get anything, 
then this place does not work.
  Frankly, we are close to not working very well. In the first 
instance, last evening we had another cloture vote. I know the majority 
leader felt strongly we probably would have the opportunity to get that 
vote. It is symbolic, I guess, of this Chamber these days. All year 
long, we have had votes on motions to proceed on noncontroversial 
bills--cloture votes that require a cloture motion to be filed and then 
wait for 2 days and then have a cloture vote on a motion to proceed to 
a noncontroversial issue. Then in addition to being required to file a 
cloture motion to shut off debate on something noncontroversial, once 
we get cloture with an overwhelming number of votes, we have to wait 30 
hours to take action. That is not legislating. That is stalling. That 
is obstruction. We have seen way too much of it in this Chamber.
  At any rate, I feel of two minds at the moment. No. 1, I am very 
disappointed that we have to have another extension. It is over and 
over again, nothing much changes, extend, extend, extend, rather than 
do the kind of legislating we should do. We will do this extension to 
the end of September on the FAA reauthorization bill. It relates to 
safety in the skies. It relates to jobs. It relates to investment in 
airport infrastructure in America. It relates to air traffic control 
modernization--all of those important issues, all of them again put on 
hold for another couple of months.
  That is a profound disappointment, as far as I am concerned. Even as 
disappointed as I am about that, let me say the safety provisions that 
we will now proceed to enact, sent to us in the bill by the House of 
Representatives, are a significant step forward. I am pleased we are 
going to be able to do at the minimum this amount of work. More will be 
done even on safety when the Senate bill, if the Senate bill, is ever 
able to be passed in the Senate and become law.
  Having said that, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 5900, the Airline 
Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010, 
received from the House and is now at the desk.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the bill by 
title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 5900) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 
     1986 to extend the funding and expenditure authority of the 
     Airport and Airway Trust Fund, to amend title 49, United 
     States Code, to extend airport improvement program project 
     grant authority and to improve airline safety, and for other 
     purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on the extension 
of the Federal Aviation Administration authorization, which includes a 
number of critical policy reforms that will make our skies safer for 
millions of Americans and their families.

[[Page S6543]]

  On the evening of February 12, 2009, Continental flight 3407, 
operated by Colgan Air, departed from Newark International Airport for 
Buffalo, NY. The 45 passengers and five crewmembers were just miles 
from the Buffalo airport when a series of events resulted in the death 
of all aboard as well as a father on the ground whose home was the 
unfortunate final resting place of flight 3407.
  Over this last year and a half, I have gotten to know many of the 
families of the victims. They are a constant presence here in 
Washington, DC, working to improve safety conditions so that others are 
spared the same loss they have had to endure.
  Sitting in my office last spring, as the NTSB began to release 
information on the crash, I discussed with the families the tremendous 
value of their advocacy. For decades the system has been slow to change 
and in the mean time innocent lives have been lost. We discussed the 
possibility of seizing on this very legislation as a vehicle for 
change--to bring accountability and transparency to the system--to 
strengthen the training requirements and push forward to achieving--not 
just ``one level of safety''--but a ``higher level of safety.''
  As I speak to you today many of those family members are with us here 
in Washington. It is because of their tireless efforts--their 
unwavering pursuit for justice--that we are in a position today to take 
some of the most significant steps in improving the safety of the 
nation's aviation system in years.
  The measures we are considering in this extension are the result of 
bipartisan efforts in both the Senate and the House yielding a number 
of provisions that I have worked to advance--and that aim to bring 
increased oversight and accountability to the system that force the FAA 
to respond to the growing concerns over crewmember fatigue and 
commuting--that strengthen the training requirements for our commercial 
pilots to ensure that those who are trusted with the lives of so many 
have the critical experience needed to safely operate an aircraft and 
respond accordingly in the event of an emergency.
  I want to recognize my colleagues, Chairman Dorgan and Chairman 
Rockefeller, who have been working around the clock on trying to bring 
the FAA reauthorization bill to the floor. We still have work to do, 
and I look forward to joining them after the summer work period to see 
the larger legislative package, which is long overdue, sent to 
President's desk.
  It is my sincere hope, that these good people who have suffered such 
sorrow at the loss of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons 
and daughters, husbands, wives that they can return home, their heads 
held high, knowing that they turned their loss into action, and that 
their efforts might spare others the same pain that they themselves 
have endured.
  I thank the families for their strength. I thank them for their 
steadfast advocacy. The American people owe them a debt of gratitude 
for the work they have done over these many months.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
read three times, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the 
table; that any statements relating to the measure be printed in the 
Record, without further intervening action or debate.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 5900) was ordered to a third reading, was read the 
third time, and passed.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, let me finally say that while I have mixed 
feelings about having done this--one regret and the other a strong 
feeling of accomplishment on the safety issues--I intend to come back 
to the floor in September, and if we have not made progress to resolve 
the FAA bill--I do not shout very much, but I said yesterday I have had 
a bellyful of this sort of thing--I am going to come to the floor and 
act very unlike a Lutheran Norwegian. You can count on that.

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