[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7470-7471]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          FAA REAUTHORIZATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as we close tonight, I want everyone within 
the sound of my voice to understand this: We are working on a very 
important piece of legislation, the reauthorization of the Federal 
Aviation Administration--the agency responsible for making sure 
aircraft is safe and reliable.
  Right now, we have an antiquated system. This legislation will do 
what has been needed for a long time to change the way we do aviation 
in this country. All the experts say it is long past due. We have had 
hard work for a long period of time. This bill is way overdue. Senator 
Rockefeller has worked very hard in bringing the product to the floor. 
It is a good product.
  We had an issue today that came up, and Senator Rockefeller offered 
an amendment which takes away that as an issue. My friends, the 
Republicans, obviously, want to kill this bill to add to the other list 
they have sent to the graveyard. They are using an excuse: Well, we 
don't have the ability to offer amendments.
  Mr. President, I have offered them anything possible to make sure 
they can offer all the amendments they want. The distinguished Senator 
from Texas, Mrs. Kay Bailey Hutchison, obviously does not like some of 
the tax portions of this bill. Offer an amendment to try to take them 
out. I have offered the Republican leader: Give us a list of the 
amendments you want to offer. This is very standard procedure around 
here. No response to that.
  It is very obvious to me this is an effort to kill this bill. Let's 
be logical. We are on the floor. I have said: Any amendments you want 
to offer that are germane or relevant to this bill, you can do that. 
Now, that is very wide. It allows anything that relates basically to 
transportation to be offered on this bill. But they have turned that 
down.
  They have broken all records for filibuster--they, the Republicans. 
On this one, on the motion to proceed, I said on the floor earlier this 
week, this was not their fault. We did not have the substitute Senators 
Rockefeller and Baucus had worked on. It was not ready until Monday 
night. But it was ready Tuesday morning, and they had every opportunity 
to work at that time and give us a list of amendments they wanted to 
do. We would give them ours.
  I was told today, when the Durbin amendment was filed, that they 
wanted to offer the next amendment. They wanted to offer it from 
Senator Bunning. No problem. We have been waiting all day for the 
language of that amendment, which is probably nonexistent.
  We have been fair. We have been reasonable. But, obviously, we are 
now at a point where they are back to their old tricks and just killing 
the bill. They should just tell us this rather than play the games. 
They should say: We do not want this bill.
  I have spoken to the Republican leader saying: If we really want to 
get this bill done, why don't I file cloture then, because no one seems 
to be wanting to offer any amendments. He said: No, it's too early. You 
have not allowed us to offer any amendments. I say: Offer amendments.
  So this is really, Mr. President, a typical procedure around here, 
that the minority, wanting to maintain the status quo with air travel, 
as everything else, puts us in a position where we have no alternative 
but to either pull the bill or file cloture, and they said they will 
not give us the extra nine votes we need.
  Remember, Mr. President, this bill has, for example, the Passenger 
Bill of Rights in it so that when people are held up on a flight--you 
are on a runway for hours at a time--there are certain rights 
passengers have. All those things that cause so much consternation when 
you are trying to travel on an airplane--the Passenger Bill of Rights 
addresses many of those. But with Republicans that will go down the 
tubes with everything else in this bill.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am happy to yield.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I know the Senator and I spoke earlier, 
and I heard his conversation on the floor earlier.
  I would say, through the Chair, if the Republican minority came 
forward, in the morning, with a list of germane amendments to this 
bill, it is my understanding the majority leader has said we will 
entertain and consider those amendments. This is open for an amendment 
process, for deliberation, and for votes on this important aviation 
safety bill. Is that correct?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I even went one step further. I said the 
distinguished Republican leader would have the right to look at our 
amendments. It would not be just me; I want him in on the deal.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, if I can further ask the majority leader: 
The Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison--who has put a lot of time in 
this, along with Senator Rockefeller--has objected to two or three 
provisions in the bill from the Finance Committee related to 
transportation and financing. I have said I support those provisions. 
But if the Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison, wants to offer a motion 
in the morning to strike those provisions, is the majority leader 
saying--I ask through the Chair--is the majority leader saying it is 
her right to offer that motion to strike?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to my friend from Illinois, I asked 
our staff: When we close today, let's not have

[[Page 7471]]

morning business. Let's go directly to the bill. But we found that was 
fruitless. They did not want us to go to the bill. I have said so many 
different times, in so many different ways, that we want to finish this 
legislation. We want to work with Republicans to finish this 
legislation.
  And I say to my friend, the Senator from Texas, it is my 
understanding, has asked other people: Why don't you offer the 
amendment to strike all this stuff? For whatever reason, she does not 
want to have her fingerprints on eliminating this amendment, obviously. 
I just think it is really too bad.
  I want this bill to go forward. The main thing I want is to make sure 
everyone understands we Democrats want to change things. We want 
change. We need change in a lot of different places, but one place we 
need change is the way air traffic is handled today. And the 
Republicans, obviously, want it to stay the same; let's keep it the 
same; let's maintain the status quo.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, if I could ask the majority leader to 
yield for one other question.
  It is my understanding, so far in this session, the Republicans have 
initiated 68 filibusters, which is an attempt to slow down or stop the 
business of the Senate. But that breaks all records in the Senate, and 
they are on course, if they continue at this pace, to offer over 100 
filibusters before the end of the year, maybe even more.
  I would like to ask the majority leader, if they continue trying to 
stop us from even bringing bills to the floor, debating them, amending 
them, and bringing them to a vote--I would like to ask the majority 
leader how we could reach a point where we actually do change things 
for the better, where we can see the progress that the American people 
expect.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, there are things we need to do. The No. 1 
issue in America today: gas prices. We cannot go to gas prices because 
we are stuck on this thing that they will not let us move on, and that 
is the way it has been going since we took the majority. That is 
something they have had trouble getting over, that we are in the 
majority. It is a slim majority, but it is the majority, and because of 
that, we have the opportunity to determine what issues come to the 
floor. The issue that was long past due was FAA reauthorization. But 
they are stopping us from doing virtually anything that needs to be 
done for this country.
  I have trouble understanding why they want to continue to up the 
record they have already broken. They broke the 2-year filibuster 
record in 10 months. But now I guess they want to keep adding to their 
record to see how many filibusters they can conduct. And they have been 
fairly successful stopping us from passing things that the American 
people want, such as the matter now on the floor. But energy 
legislation--they stopped us on that. That is to go to alternative 
energy so we do not have to use 21 million barrels of oil every day. We 
have wanted to do things dealing with education. We have not been able 
to do that. Health care, we haven't been able to do that. Things that 
the American people want are being stopped because of the Republicans' 
love of the status quo.

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