[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 114 (Wednesday, July 27, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4929-S4930]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FAA REAUTHORIZATION
Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the FAA bill. On
Friday, authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration was
allowed to expire. Four thousand workers were placed on furlough. The
airport and airways trust fund now lacks the authority to collect user
fees that fund air traffic services, airport maintenance, and other
things that Americans rely on.
Let's be clear. This should not have happened. It happened because a
few Members of the other body made a conscious choice to negotiate in
bad faith. Clear and simple.
Let me recap it. Under the able leadership of Senator Rockefeller,
the Senate again passed our long-term FAA authorization in February,
with a bipartisan vote of 87 to 8. Later, the House passed its bill,
but largely along party lines.
In April, the Senate named conferees to negotiate a final bill.
However, our friends in the House have yet to appoint conferees to join
us at the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, since 2007, we have passed 20 extensions to allow this
program to continue operating while we work to negotiate a long-term
solution. Not a single one of those extensions has been met with
controversy--not one.
However, as we undertook what should have been the latest clean
extension, the House unexpectedly eliminated 13 rural airports that
rely on Essential Air Service just days before the authorization
expired. The House refused to reconsider and chose instead to shut down
the Federal Aviation Administration.
The House seeks to save approximately one-tenth of 1 percent of
overall aviation spending by attacking essential air services. I agree
with anyone who wants to control Federal spending and invest in real
priorities--we all do--but it simply doesn't make sense to focus on
saving fractions of pennies on the dollar instead of coming to the
negotiating table to hammer out long-term solutions.
At the same time, the House rejected an opportunity to protect our
troops from exorbitant baggage fees. Congressman Nick Rahall introduced
an amendment to the House extension that would have prohibited air
carriers from charging a baggage fee for members of the Armed Forces
while traveling on official military duty, especially those checking
four or fewer bags. In one instance, an airline reportedly socked a
poor servicemember with a baggage fee of $3,000. Regrettably, the House
rejected this offer to protect our troops, and the rejection was on a
party-line vote. Those of us negotiating in good faith here in the
Senate were left scratching our heads. The House would reject a clean
extension to save a mere one-tenth of 1 percent by attacking rural jobs
and commerce, but it would reject an opportunity to protect our troops
from getting gouged by baggage fees on the same bill. It doesn't make
sense.
Later, we learned through the press that the House's erratic strategy
had apparently nothing to do with potential cost savings at all, but,
instead, these antics were about rulemaking by the National Mediation
Board. This is a labor issue that has nothing to do with essential air
service and nothing to do with the daily operations of the Federal
Aviation Administration, both of which could be operating right now
under a clean extension. This labor issue should be worked out in a
conference--the conference committee we can't have because the House
has yet to name conferees.
One of the rural communities the House Members chose to cut down as a
[[Page S4930]]
political pawn is Glendive, MT. Glendive is growing in the energy
sector. It is in the Bakken formation, with lots of oil and gas wells
drilled, and it is a huge potential new energy source. Energy companies
from Texas and Louisiana are rapidly sending personnel up to Glendive,
and hotels in the area are running at near-full occupancy year-round.
We are working hard to quickly build housing and infrastructure in
order to capitalize on this great opportunity to create much needed
jobs. Today, unemployment in Glendive is half the national average. But
Glendive is located 230 miles from any larger airport. Glendive needs
essential air service to maintain its lifeline to national commerce and
continue to grow and create jobs.
We can discuss at length the merits of essential air service, the
promise made to rural America, and the lifeline it provides to towns
such as Glendive. In fact, this is a conversation we should have. Any
changes should be made as part of thoughtful and transparent
discussion, with input from the folks on the ground who are most
affected. Again, that is precisely what conference negotiations are
for--yet, again, negotiations we can't hold. Why? Because the House has
yet to name its conferees.
The House antics have halted as much as $2.5 billion in airport
funding--funding that employs as many as 87,000 workers on construction
projects around the country. At Glacier International Airport in
Kalispell, MT, much needed upgrades to the taxiway are now on hold
indefinitely, and so are the much needed construction jobs this project
would support.
Even more troubling, 4,000 mothers and fathers and breadwinners are
now out of work. These are folks such as Kristina Richardson, an
administrative support specialist at Billings Logan International
Airport's air traffic control tower. Over the weekend, Kristina wasn't
able to go grocery shopping. She didn't know if she could count on her
next paycheck to buy food and pay her bills. Kristina described the pit
in her stomach when she went in to clean off her desk and shut down her
computer. Kristina told my office she worried about who would help the
people she had been working with. She described the pride and
fulfillment that comes from working and the blow that comes when that
is taken away.
Luckily, Kristina was told on Tuesday she would be able to return to
work. But 4,000 other folks across the country haven't been so lucky.
Like most Montanans, Kristina is one tough lady, and she understands
the vital importance of essential air service to rural communities.
Even when she thought she had been furloughed, she hung in there. She
contacted my office to voice her support for a clean FAA extension that
rejects arbitrary cuts to rural communities.
I am increasingly concerned about the nature of our political
discourse. Lately, it seems some folks are more focused on making 30-
second sound bites than making laws. What happened with the FAA bill is
an example of this misguided focus. Whatever the House's true reason
for suspending 4,000-plus jobs and halting construction to improve
airport safety, it just wasn't right.
Still, I know we can do good things around here when we work
together, and I hold out the hope that we will return our focus to what
is important and start getting work done, and it is not just here but
on debt extension and a lot of major matters around here. But in the
meantime, we need to fix this mess. This is easier to fix--much easier.
Along with Senator Rockefeller, I introduced a clean FAA extension
that would put 4,000 employees back to work, let us start construction
projects around the country to create jobs and improve the safety of
our airports, and continue to fund the trust fund. Then together we can
continue working on a longer term solution. I urge my colleagues to
support a clean extension.
Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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