[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 115 (Thursday, July 28, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5000-S5001]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FAA REAUTHORIZATION

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, let me speak for a few minutes about 
the disappointment I have and I am sure many other colleagues have with 
the situation we find ourselves in with respect to the partial shutdown 
of the Federal Aviation Administration.
  My colleague from Colorado, Senator Bennet, was on the Senate floor 
this afternoon and spoke eloquently about how this partial shutdown is 
affecting his State of Colorado. I wanted to talk briefly about the 
similar concerns I have for my State of New Mexico.
  Frankly, some in this Congress, in my view, have lost sight of what 
they were elected to do in Washington. Aviation is a critical piece of 
our transportation infrastructure, a critical piece of our economy. 
Yet, for nearly a week now, the Congress has failed to extend the 
necessary authorizations to keep the Federal Aviation Administration 
doing the work that needs to be done.
  It has been over 5 months since the Senate passed its reauthorization 
bill for aviation programs. That vote was overwhelming; it was 87 to 8. 
So this was not a partisan bill; this was a bill supported strongly by 
both Democrats and Republicans.
  The bill included a number of programs important to my State of New 
Mexico and to the entire Nation, including the Airport Improvement 
Program that provides grants for the construction of runways, taxiways, 
which help to make airports safer. These projects also create hundreds 
of jobs in the construction industry in my State and tens of thousands 
of jobs in the construction industry nationwide.
  One of the most important features of the Senate's bill relates to 
our air traffic control system. Our current system is universally 
recognized as being antiquated, inefficient, and increasingly it is 
recognized as being unsafe. The bill we passed out of the Senate 
dramatically accelerates the FAA's efforts to convert the air traffic 
control system to one based on satellites and global positioning 
systems, similar to the GPS many of us have in our cars. When 
implemented, NextGen--the name given to this improvement of the air 
traffic control system--will improve safety, will increase efficiency 
of operations, will reduce delays, and will save fuel and help to 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  Thanks to the good work Chairman Rockefeller and Ranking Member 
Hutchison in the Commerce Committee did, the Senate passed a good bill 
to reauthorize aviation programs. That was in February. Then in April, 
the House passed its own version nearly on a party-line vote. The House 
majority, unfortunately, chose to include partisan and divisive 
provisions in that legislation that were not appropriate in an aviation 
bill.
  Let me give a little description of what those partisan and divisive 
provisions I am referring to are. There was an editorial in the New 
York Times this morning that summed it up well. It says:

       Last year, the National Mediation Board changed a rule to 
     make it easier for airline and railroad workers to unionize. 
     Until then, workers who did not vote in union representation 
     elections were counted as ``no'' votes; after the change 
     [this is the change by the National Mediation Board--its own 
     rules] they are counted as abstentions. Pushed by the airline 
     lobby, House Republicans passed a long-term FAA 
     reauthorization bill that would have undone the rule change. 
     The Senate's reauthorization bill, passed in February, 
     maintained the rule.

  In spite of this difference in the two bills, the Senate did appoint 
conferees, did begin working to resolve differences--as we should 
have--and working out the required compromise is never easy. 
Unfortunately, now the House has decided that in order to gain leverage 
over the Senate to accept the House anti-union provisions, there would 
not be any additional clean extensions of existing law.
  We have had 20 extensions of existing law to just keep the Federal 
Aviation Administration operating while the House and Senate negotiate 
the final resolution of this larger bill. Unfortunately, the situation 
now is that the Congress's failure to extend the authorization one more 
time has shut down important aviation programs across the country, and 
4,000 FAA employees have been furloughed and forced to go without pay. 
Across the Nation, important airport improvement projects are now on 
hold.
  In New Mexico, $26 million in funding for over two dozen projects has 
been stopped. These include a new firetruck for the airport in Roswell, 
runway projects in Raton and Santa Rosa, and snow removal equipment in 
Clayton and Vaughn. In Santa Fe, work on a vital new radar system has 
been stopped. In Albuquerque, progress has stopped on a $10 million 
project to replace the airport parking apron.
  What is particularly troubling to me is that the authority to collect 
the ticket tax has also been suspended. Why should this matter? This is 
the money that goes into the airport trust fund and allows us to 
continue to make improvements and maintain our airport infrastructure 
around the country. This is funding that is used to pay for safety and 
infrastructure projects at airports in my State and everywhere in the 
country. As I understand it, it amounts to about $30 million a day 
being lost from that trust fund. At a time when we are being told the 
country is falling behind in its investments in basic infrastructure, 
this loss of funding is clearly going to have major impacts on airport 
projects down the road.
  People also need to realize that the fact that the FAA is no longer 
able to collect the ticket tax does not mean people don't have to pay 
the full price they would be paying if the tax were being charged. The 
airlines, with very few exceptions, have announced they

[[Page S5001]]

are going to continue to charge the full price for tickets and pocket 
the extra money themselves, instead of turning it over for 
infrastructure projects at our airports.

  So here we are. It is simply, in my view, unacceptable for the 
Congress not to restore to the FAA the authority to collect airline 
ticket taxes and to resume normal operations.
  Senator Rockefeller has introduced a clean extension of the aviation 
programs. Whatever differences there are between the two bodies in 
provisions in the short-term extension are trivial compared to this $30 
million a day the Nation is losing in funding for our Nation's airport 
projects.
  We all here in the Senate, in the Congress, and in the country, are 
focused on the need to extend the debt limit, and that is the most 
urgent need we face, but in addition to that we need to restore to the 
FAA the authority to resume its normal operations and to resume 
payments into the airport trust fund. To leave for an August break 
without having fixed the problem of the lack of FAA authorization as 
well would be seriously irresponsible.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the 
Record the editorial from this morning's New York Times entitled ``This 
Is Called `Small' Government.''
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, July 27, 2011]

                   This Is Called `Small' Government

       What has happened to the Federal Aviation Administration in 
     the last few days should remind everyone of the costs of the 
     Republicans' obstructionism and their slash-and-burn budget 
     games.
       Taxes on airline tickets expired on Friday when the F.A.A. 
     lost its operating authority, including the authority to 
     collect taxes. Passengers are rightly furious at the nation's 
     airlines, many of which are pocketing the difference. But the 
     masterminds of this fiasco are the House Republicans who let 
     this happen.
       The F.A.A. has also had to furlough some 4,000 workers. 
     Needed airport construction projects--to maintain runways, 
     build new traffic control towers and upgrade other 
     facilities--have been halted across the country. The only 
     good news is that the air traffic control system is still 
     working because traffic controllers are paid from the 
     Aviation Trust Fund, which still has a positive balance.
       All of this happened after House Republicans inserted a new 
     provision into a routine bill to temporarily extend the 
     F.A.A.'s operational authority. The provision would end $16.5 
     million in federal subsidies to 13 airports in rural 
     communities. The bill passed the House. But Senate Democrats 
     balked, arguing that the right place for changing policy is 
     in the regular F.A.A. reauthorization bill--noting that the 
     temporary extension has passed 20 times since 2007 without 
     any additional provisions.
       ``If we can't put an end to these extravagant subsidies, 
     then we will never be able to rein in spending where really 
     hard decisions are necessary,'' said Tom Petri, the chairman 
     of the House aviation subcommittee, upon submitting the bill. 
     Talk about pound foolish. When the F.A.A. lost operational 
     authority, it lost its ability to collect $200 million in 
     taxes a week. These taxes would have paid for the airport 
     subsidies in about 14 hours. There is more going on here. As 
     we have seen in many Republican-led states, an attack on 
     ``excessive'' government spending is also often a bid to 
     break labor unions.
       Last year, the National Mediation Board changed a rule to 
     make it easier for airline and railroad workers to unionize. 
     Until then, workers who did not vote in union representation 
     elections were counted as ``no'' votes; after the change, 
     they are counted as abstentions. Pushed by the airline lobby, 
     House Republicans passed a long-term F.A.A. reauthorization 
     in April that would have undone the rule change. The Senate's 
     reauthorization bill, passed in February, maintained the 
     rule.
       Earlier this month, John Mica, the chairman of the House 
     Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told an aviation 
     conference that adding the airport subsidy provision to the 
     temporary bill to keep the F.A.A. running is ``just a tool'' 
     to force the Senate to give in on the union issue.
       Next time voters hear Republicans talking about taking a 
     principled stand against government spending, they should 
     keep this sorry and cynical tale in mind.

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

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