[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 1167-1168]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                AVIATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Pompeo) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POMPEO. Mr. Speaker, when I go around in Kansas and talk to folks 
and talk to them about a business that supports 1.2 million American 
jobs and over $150 billion of wealth creation across the U.S. economy 
and ask, ``What do you think a President would do if they knew about an 
industry like that?'' they'd all say the same thing folks all across 
the country would say. They'd say that the President ought to encourage 
that, ought to thank the people that work in that industry, and ought 
to promote that industry all across the world, a great American-
manufactured product doing great things in America.
  Yet, that industry, the general aviation industry, is used by our 
President as a rhetorical punching bag. Everywhere he goes, he talks 
about corporate fat-cat jet owners and those rich, wealthy people 
flying around in corporate airplanes.
  Well, I know what this industry does. I came from this industry. I 
know precisely who these people are. When you use language like that 
and you talk about an American manufacturing industry in that way, 
you're talking about welders, you're talking about union mechanics, and 
you're talking about all the support people that work at fixed-base 
operations all across the country. You're talking about good, 
hardworking Americans, not corporate fat-cat jet owners.
  Yet this President continues in the same way that he has. I had hoped 
that I wouldn't have to come back and talk about it again, but I 
anticipate that tonight, from this very Chamber, we'll hear about those 
same corporate fat-cat jet owners yet again.
  The general aviation industry doesn't ask for a handout, and it 
doesn't need what Detroit received. It only asks that a President 
acknowledge and recognize the importance of this industry. It creates 
aircraft that are used by small businessowners all across the Nation to 
get to places they need to be. Every week, I fly on commercial aircraft 
from here back to Wichita, Kansas. It's no easy task. If you want to 
get to two or three of your suppliers or four or five of your customers 
in a day located all throughout the heartland, the most efficient tool 
to use to do that is a general aviation airplane.
  And, of course, we know the President understands that, Mr. Speaker. 
He flies around in the nicest personal aircraft in the history of the 
world, actually built in Wichita, Kansas. And government employees use 
general aviation aircraft to travel all around the country. They do so 
because it is an efficient means of conducting their business.
  Now, when the President talks about these corporate fat-cat jet 
owners, he's doing so because he says he wants to close a loophole, he 
wants to generate more money coming to Washington, D.C., and he talks 
about this subsidy. We looked long and hard to find out what subsidy it 
was he was referring to. Frankly, we think it is a depreciation 
schedule--a depreciation schedule--something that every asset in 
America is subject to. Yet, somehow, he has picked on this particular 
depreciation schedule as offensive and antithetical to the American way 
of life.
  Mr. President, the revenue that is generated in 1 year if we 
eliminated the provision about which we think you're speaking, Mr. 
Speaker, would generate enough revenue to run the government for a 
single day--1 day. Yet, Mr. Speaker, the President continues to use 
this language of class warfare against an industry that has created so 
many tens of thousands of jobs all across our country. It is 
unexplainable why anyone would be critical of this industry.
  The President has also proposed a new tax, a general aviation fee, of 
$100 per flight segment, which would require an entire new bureaucracy 
to implement and to execute. It is incomprehensible to me why anyone 
would think that was the right approach.
  Mr. Speaker, I have invited the President of the United States to 
come to Wichita, Kansas, to see Beechcraft, to see Cessna, and to see 
Learjet and to see all the suppliers and all of the people who work so 
hard to make these

[[Page 1168]]

airplanes. He has not taken me up on that yet, Mr. Speaker. I urge that 
he do so. But, sadly, if he continues to decline and continues to talk 
about this industry in the way that he does, he will not suffer, but 
tens of thousands of Americans who work on these airplanes all across 
the country will.
  I hope, Mr. Speaker, that the President will change his direction, 
change his course of action, and recognize the value of this important 
industry.

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