[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 114 (Wednesday, July 27, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4945-S4946]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FAA Reauthorization
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, last week I came to the Senate floor
to
[[Page S4946]]
ask unanimous consent to pass something called--a very easy thing--a
clean extension of the FAA bill, something the Senate has done 20
times. This is the 21st time--4 years waiting to pass a reauthorization
bill.
But for the first time in these 4 years, the Republicans objected to
this extraordinarily routine request. Shortly, I will renew my request
to pass our 21st short-term extension of the FAA. But before I do, I
want to highlight the very painful consequences of failing to pass this
bill, which we can only do by getting a clean extension.
By objecting to my request last week, Republican Senators made sure
that 4,000 hard-working FAA employees were furloughed already. Hundreds
of critical airport safety capacity air traffic control projects were
brought to a halt. Payments were stopped to hundreds of small
businesses dependent upon reimbursement from the FAA for their work.
The Federal Government is being forced to forego almost $30 million a
day in aviation tax revenue that is critical, obviously, to supporting
our overall airport infrastructure program. The introduction of the
newest Boeing aircraft is being delayed because the FAA cannot certify
that the planes operate safely.
I know in Washington we have a tendency to view these fights as
purely policy disagreements that have no real impact on people. I
stress that there is an enormous effect on people and businesses, large
and small, and on the economy of the United States. Because some
Republicans have refused to allow another clean extension of the FAA
programs, something we have done 20 times in the last 4 years, we are
inflicting real pain on very real people.
People are suffering. Small businesses are hurting. We are losing
jobs and will lose a lot more. Even consumers are losing out on the
airline ticket tax holidays.
The majority of the airline industry has greedily chosen to pocket
those revenues rather than reducing ticket prices. In other words, they
have a tax holiday because the expiration of the tax has already taken
place a number of days ago. So they are taking this tax holiday, and
rather than leaving at the present level the cost of a ticket for
consumers--as Alaska Airlines is doing and Virgin Airlines is doing and
one other airline is doing--they are taking the money to themselves,
giving it to themselves.
I find that extraordinary. It reminds me of ``Too Big to Fail''--the
movie--the greed, the promise to help with small mortgages and they got
all the money and didn't spend a dime to help with small mortgages.
The damage we are doing to our aviation system is incredibly real. If
we fail to act in a timely manner, it may be so devastating as to
become irreversible. It makes sense when we think about it. If one were
to operate on somebody and cut beyond a certain point, they can't
reverse the damage.
With so much pain being inflicted on so many, one may ask why my
Republican colleagues have refused repeated requests to pass a clean
extension--something we have done 20 times in the past 4 years.
They are willing, evidently, to hurt so many of these people for the
benefit of one company. It is called Delta Airlines. As the chairman of
the House Transportation Committee has stated publicly, the House
inserted language on the Essential Air Service Program to leverage the
Senate on including provisions relating to the National Mediation
Board.
What do I mean? What they sent to us was all about essential air
service. But that is not what it is about at all. The chairman, my
counterpart in the House told me many times that essential air service
is not a big deal to him. He doesn't particularly have a dog in this
hunt. We need to do some reform on it, which we offered to do. He
didn't mention a thing about the National Mediation Board. That is the
only thing that motivates the House.
Delta Airlines is nonunion. The other airlines, for the most part,
are union. Delta Airlines has had four elections in the last several
years to unionize. Each time the company has prevailed over the union.
So one might ask: Why is it that they are so strongly suggesting they
need this National Mediation Board, which they changed in their bill.
It had been changed 2 years ago to say the number of votes that were
cast were the number of votes that were reflected. In their bill, they
want to say that anybody who does not vote in a union certification
election, by definition, has voted no. I have never heard of that in
America anywhere else. It is a rather ridiculous ploy.
This is not policy, this is pettiness. It has become the typical ``my
way or the highway'' thinking of the House Republicans.
I note that we have forgone almost $150 million in tax revenues by
failing to act. It will go up by about $25 million a day, which, when
we think about it, would come close to paying for the whole Essential
Air Service Program anyway, in just a week or so. Again, by the end of
the week, we will have lost more revenue used for aviation
infrastructure spending than on the entire Essential Air Service
Program cost all of last year. It is embarrassing.
I wish my Republican colleagues would have defended the prerogatives
of the Senate. Instead, some chose to back the House leadership.
Last week, as my friend from Utah--who is here now--outlined so
honestly, Senate Republicans are not permitting the Senate to pass a
clean extension because they want the Senate to accept language
altering 85 years of labor law and legal precedent.
I wish I understood why the policy objections of one company--Delta
Airlines--mattered so much to so few and also mattered so much more
than the livelihood of thousands of American workers who have or will
be furloughed.
Last year, the CEO of Delta made $9 million. Whether that was a
salary or salary plus options, I know not. Delta paid its top
executives almost $20 million. Yet it is fighting to make sure its
employees cannot organize--they already had four elections, and in all
four Delta has prevailed--for fear they may secure a few extra dollars
in their paychecks.
At the same time, it is pushing for special interest provisions in
the FAA bill. Delta is not shy. Delta announced it was abandoning air
services to 26 small, rural communities--leaving many of them,
obviously, without any air service. One only has to live in a small,
rural community or a State such as mine to understand what that means
and what the cost truly is.
Delta then had the gall to announce publicly it would seek EAS
subsidies to continue this service. Maybe Mr. Anderson and his
colleagues can forgo some of their own salaries to help subsidize the
air service. That is not my business. Maybe they could use some of the
millions of dollars they are collecting in a tax holiday windfall to
pay for this service. That is not my business, but it is theirs, and it
is shameful.
Let me be clear. House Republicans and their Senate allies have
thrown nearly 4,000 FAA employees out of work already, stopped critical
airport safety projects, hurt hundreds of small businesses, and gutted
the Aviation Trust Fund--or began to--so Delta Airlines--that one
company--doesn't have to allow its employees to organize in a fair or
timely manner, if they chose to.
The needs of one company should not, in any deliberative body,
dictate the safety and soundness of our aviation system. We need to
pass a clean extension that will get people back to work and businesses
and their employees back to work and build out our airport
infrastructure.
It is so simple to pass a clean extension bill. We have done it so
often. We have done it 20 times. The one time where there was some
policy attached was 2 years ago, when the House and the Senate totally
agreed on what was in the extension, and it passed. But it is such a
simple thing to do. By not doing it, it is holding up our whole
process.