[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 17, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3345-H3346]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ALLEGIANT AIR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, the CBS News program ``60 Minutes'' 
devoted more than half their show on Sunday to a 7-month investigation 
into Allegiant Air, a low-budget airline based in Las Vegas.
  The segment was called ``Allegiant Air: The Budget Airline Flying 
Under the Radar.'' According to CBS, Allegiant is one of the most 
profitable airlines in the U.S. and made a healthy profit for 60 
straight months. And up until word came out about the expose on CBS, 
its stock was doing pretty well, too.
  In order to reward investors while still selling seats at rock-bottom 
ticket prices, however, Allegiant pushes their aging, secondhand fleet 
of 99 outdated aircraft beyond their limits. But, hey, apparently, in 
corporate America, profits are more important than people, even if 
carrying people safely is supposed to be your main concern.
  So far, the only thing to crash with this airline is its high-flying 
stock price, which is down 11 percent since word of the CBS story first 
came out, because ``60 Minutes'' documented incident after incident--
more than 100 in a less than 2 years--of aborted takeoffs, unscheduled 
landings, smoke-filled cabins, cabin-pressure loss, and other emergency 
situations.
  A former prosecutor at the FAA with 30 years of experience says: 
``You know, if, God forbid, there is an accident, I think there will be 
a lot of people saying, `Well, we knew. We knew and we did nothing.'''
  Mr. Speaker, Allegiant Air is a tragedy waiting to happen. And they 
really should know better, and we as a country should know better, 
because the CEO of Allegiant is none other than one of the founders of 
ValuJet.
  Do you remember them? They were the cut-rate airline that was 
apparently cutting corners on safety to boost their position with 
stockholders. But they aren't flying anymore because ValuJet flight 
592, with 110 people on board, plunged into the Everglades after taking 
off from Miami International Airport 22 years ago.
  What we learned after the fact was that the airline drove up profits, 
pushed its fleet to the edge, took extra freight in cargo holds to make 
extra money, and cut corners on the safety of its passengers. And you 
know what happened. People died.
  We have seen this before, which leads to the very important question 
for Congress: Why isn't anyone doing anything about it? Where is the 
FAA? Where is the DOT and the committees of jurisdiction here in the 
House of Representatives? I hear the Senators are doing something about 
it.
  Why have there been no hearings and so little response from the 
Federal Government? ``60 Minutes'' made a compelling case that the 
regulators are not doing their jobs. Host Steve Kroft said: ``Over the 
last 3 years, the FAA has switched its priorities from actively 
enforcing safety rules with fines, warning letters, and sanctions, 
which become part of the public record''--so we would all know about 
the safety of these airlines--``to working quietly with the airlines 
behind the scenes to fix the problems''--yes, at the backs of the 
American people that they are supposed to protect.
  This airline, Allegiant, with 3.5 times as many serious emergency 
incidents as any other airline, might be a special case or it might 
just be typical, but we just don't know. And the American people just 
don't know.
  If the FAA isn't doing a good job of making sure Allegiant Air is 
safe, what else are we missing about the airlines? We ought to demand 
that the experts inside and outside of Congress get the facts and all 
the people are accountable.
  Now, I understand that the dirtiest word in the conservative 
dictionary is ``regulation,'' and, frankly, it is not clear that the 
downside in regulatory oversight happened exclusively or even more 
rapidly since our current businessman and TV host President took 
office; but I think it is clear that following the rules being 
transparent and being accountable in American industry, especially the 
airline industry where millions of lives are at stake every day, ought 
to be a top priority.
  When I sit down to dinner with my family, I want to know the chicken 
and vegetables on my plate are safe to eat.

[[Page H3346]]

My car, my gadgets, and my flight home all deserve rigorous scrutiny. I 
want to know that the water my grandson drinks is clean.
  The American people are losing confidence, Mr. Speaker, that the 
people who are supposed to be watching out for us are really watching 
out for us when we eat, drink, breathe, travel.
  There is a big drive in Congress to cut government budgets, cut red 
tape, crusade against regulation. The other side demonizes regulation 
almost as much as the President demonizes immigrants. But I just want 
to make sure that, when the Federal Government and this Congress are 
cutting budgets, we are not cutting corners that allow airplanes with 
Americans on them, with anybody on them, with human beings on them, to 
fly out of the sky so that companies can make better profits.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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