[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       GENERAL AVIATION INDUSTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Pompeo) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POMPEO. Madam Speaker, on Monday of this week, 2 days ago, the 
President released his budget plan. It will take America's deficits, or 
total debt, to over $27 trillion. That's a big number. It's hard to get 
our heads around numbers like that. So I want to talk about how it 
impacts a particular industry and a particular group of people, how his 
budget and plan will put under attack 1.2 million Americans and an 
industry known as general aviation that generates over $150 billion for 
our U.S. economy.
  Now, the general aviation industry is an industry that this President 
has been assaulting ever since he took office. It is one of America's 
last great manufacturing sectors, indeed, a manufacturing jewel still 
here in America; and yet it has become a bit of a political punching 
bag for our President who constantly refers to the entire industry as 
made up of nothing but ``corporate fat-cat jet owners.''
  But I want to talk about the job creation aspect. I want to talk 
about how the general aviation industry impacts real people. I want to 
tell some real stories about how lives are impacted when a President 
speaks about an industry this way and then presents a budget that has 
such an enormous impact. There are real consequences.
  I can tell you that each time the President attacks the general 
aviation industry, a machine shop in Wichita, Kansas, is impacted; a 
West Virginia company loses a sale; or a private company putting jet 
fuel on airplanes in California feels the squeeze.
  I want to recall some of the attacks, but I also want to talk about 
these people. The general aviation industry produces aircraft that are 
a tool--a tool--that increases productivity and ultimately contributes 
to the success of businesses all across our country. It's about helping 
a parts supplier, a fellow named Jim who wrote a story to me from 
Plainwell, Michigan. It helps him deliver parts all across the country 
so not only can his company succeed and grow jobs, but all of the folks 
that Jim's company serves.
  It's about getting a daughter to a hospital who is very ill on an 
Angel Flight--a wonderful nonprofit organization that uses excess 
capacity on small planes all around the country to meet the medical 
needs of people all across our Nation.
  It's about the town of Fort Morgan, Colorado, whose local industries 
rely heavily on general aviation and which is an absolute lifeline for 
this small town's continuing success.
  It's about a fellow named William in Mobile, Alabama, who wrote me 
and said:

       I work for a manufacturer. We build jet engines for the 
     general aviation industry. We've seen firsthand how President 
     Obama's rhetoric hurts our industry. We lose sales. Why would 
     a President attack an industry that provides hundreds of 
     thousands of good, union jobs when he says that his entire 
     focus is those jobs? I wish the President would encourage 
     general aviation, and not attack it.

  I think William has it exactly right. Many in my hometown of Wichita, 
Kansas, which is the headquarters for Beechcraft, Learjet and Cessna, 
know these stories all too well, also.
  For the third time now in the President's budget, he's called for 
user fees on every flight of every general aviation aircraft and has 
set up a system whereby it will become more expensive through the Tax 
Code to purchase these aircraft--these American-built aircraft. But it 
impacts lots of folks in different places, not just the manufacturers.
  Chris from Los Angeles wrote me and said:

       My little flight school employs five full-time workers and 
     three part-time employees. Up through now, I've been able to 
     weather the economic storms. Unfortunately, despite the 
     claims that piston aircraft will be exempt, these user fees 
     will hurt us, Mr. President. I'll be forced to shut my doors, 
     thereby laying off my employees.

  Madam Speaker, this is not about fat-cat corporate jet owners in the 
corner office. This is about the livelihood of those eight people in 
California who depend on this industry to put food on the table for 
their families.
  Carl from Plano, Texas, wrote me and said:

       Like others have said, a large percentage of people who use 
     business aircraft do it as a productivity tool. I wish 
     Washington would recognize that an airplane is a tool just 
     like production machinery and a delivery truck.

  The whole time the President is criticizing the aircraft flying 
industry, he flies around in one of the great jets built in Kansas--Air 
Force One. His Cabinet members and senior staff fly on airplanes all 
across the world, and I'm proud of that. But, unfortunately, the 
President doesn't see the value in general aviation except for when 
it's his own. I've invited the President multiple times to come to 
Wichita, Kansas, to see the workers who build these great planes. And 
yet it continues: the President tries to destroy an industry that 
employs over 1 million people.
  This is not leadership. This is division and envy, and I wish the 
President would cease to do so. It's a travesty, it's not good for jobs 
in America, and it's not good for our general aviation industry.

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