[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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