[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[December 7, 2000]
[Pages 2649-2651]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Announcing the Establishment of the Federal Aviation 
Administration's Air Traffic Organization
December 7, 2000

    Well, Keith, thank you for telling 
everybody why I'm trying so hard to get something done about this. 
[Laughter] Thank you very much for the work you do and for being here 
with us today as exhibit A.
    I want to thank Secretary Slater and 
our Administrator Jane Garvey for all they 
have done in these last several years. And I want to thank John 
Cullinane and Sharon Patrick for being here. And our NTSB Chairman, Jim 
Hall; thank you very much, Jim, for your work.
    As Secretary Slater said, when the Vice President and I took office 
in 1993, among other things that were troubled in this economy, we found 
a very troubled airline industry. And in my first--Rodney mentioned the 
trip I made to Everett, Washington, to meet with the leaders of the 
airline industry at the Boeing plant near Seattle. That was the first 
trip I took outside Washington as President. I did it because I knew 
that we had to turn the airline industry around if we wanted to turn the 
American economy around.
    Out of that meeting was born the Baliles Commission, headed by the 
former Governor of Virginia, Governor Gerry Baliles, and a set of recommendations that helped to power the 
airline industry back to health. Thanks to those recommendations and to 
a booming economy, the airline industry is strong again and, I think, 
has benefited from the work that has been done in this administration by 
the Vice President and Secretary 
Slater and Administrator Garvey.
    We have basically pursued a three-pronged approach: First, we want 
to preserve and enhance domestic competition so that our people continue 
to reap the benefits of deregulation. Second, we want to open more 
foreign markets so that our airlines can compete better internationally. 
And third, we want to improve the efficiency of our infrastructure, 
particularly air traffic control, to keep pace with the phenomenal 
growth in air travel. Now, that's what we're here to talk about today, 
because, frankly, we haven't been able to do it.
    Our infrastructure is just as important to us today as the railroads 
were in the 1800's or the Interstate Highway System was in the second 
half of the 20th century. Just as those advancements made us competitive 
in the 19th and 20th century economies, a modernized air traffic control 
system will help determine our ability to compete in the 21st century.

[[Page 2650]]

    The fact is, the FAA's 20-year effort to modernize its air traffic 
control technology simply has not been able to keep pace with either the 
emergence of new technology or the growth and demand for air travel. And 
while we've made significant progress, as the horrendous--and I don't 
know how else to say it--just the horrendous flight delay statistics 
demonstrate, we have not done nearly enough.
    This is no reflection, I don't hesitate to say, on the leadership of 
the FAA or the dedication of its employees. They are very, very good. 
They operate the largest, busiest, and safest air travel system in the 
world. It orchestrates 93,000 flights every day, more than one every 
second. They also oversee the safety of the entire system, which has a 
remarkable record, as all of you who are involved in it know.
    Despite the extraordinary efforts of these people, however, the 
rapid growth in air travel is simply racing ahead of the limits of the 
FAA's aging infrastructure. Flight delays have increased by more than 58 
percent in the last 5 years, cancellations by 68 percent. In addition to 
widespread passenger frustration and anger, which I hear about wherever 
I go, these delays are costing airlines and passengers more than $5 
billion every year.
    Part of the problem is due to outdated technology. We're working 
with Congress to speed up the upgrade of facilities and equipment at 
airports and air traffic control centers. But a more fundamental problem 
is also how the FAA operates. It must be better structured to manage the 
high-tech, high-demand operations of a 21st century air traffic control 
system.
    David Osborne, who popularized the phrase 
``Reinventing Government'' when he wrote a book by that title, sums up 
the problem in his new book, the ``Reinventor's Field Book.'' In it, he 
says--and I quote--``Air traffic control is a massive, complex, 
technology intensive service business, operating within a conventional 
U.S. Government bureaucracy. It's like putting a Ferrari engine into a 
dump truck body and still expecting it to win races.''
    We need to put the Ferrari engine of FAA excellence into a new, more 
streamlined, more efficient body. To accelerate our efforts to reduce 
passenger delays and improve air traffic control efficiency, I am 
taking, therefore, the following actions. First, I am directing the FAA 
to create a performance-based organization, the Air Traffic Services 
Organization, to manage the operation of air traffic control. This 
semiautonomous organization, located within the FAA, will have the 
incentives and tools necessary to operate more effectively and 
efficiently.
    Second, Secretary Slater is designating 
five outstanding business and management leaders for appointment to the 
Air Traffic Services Subcommittee. The group will function as a board of 
directors to oversee the management of the FAA's air traffic control 
organization to make sure it operates more efficiently. They are: former 
United States Senator and Chairperson of the subcommittee on aviation, 
Nancy Kassebaum Baker; John 
Cullinane, who's here with us today, 
president of the Cullinane Group and a pioneer in the computer software 
industry; Leon Lynch, the international vice 
president for human affairs at the United Steel Workers; Sharon 
Patrick, president and chief operating 
officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc., is here with us; and 
John Snow, a former Department of Transportation 
Administrator and current chairman, president, and chief executive 
officer of CSX corporation. It is a distinguished group, and I think 
they'll do a fine job.
    I am also directing the Department of Transportation and the FAA to 
review the impediments to the use of airport congestion pricing and 
other market mechanisms to reduce airport delays. Let me say, I asked 
about this years ago, and it turns out there are a couple of Federal 
laws which make it hard to do.
    But if you think about how much business travel there is and how 
much travel travel there is and how much flexibility we might build in 
the system if we just had some market mechanisms to more uniformly use 
the airplane and airport infrastructure that we have out there, I think 
that we really missed a big opportunity not to try to take more 
advantage of this. And I think we could rather quickly level out and 
maximize the use of our facilities and our planes in ways that would 
dramatically reduce delays and cancellations.
    But there are some, apparently, some actual statutory impediments to 
doing it. So we're going to do what we can to identify them and leave 
them in good shape for the next administration, and given the level of 
anxiety about this in the country, I think that we could get some pretty 
quick action. I hope it will happen next year.

[[Page 2651]]

    I hope that all these actions will accelerate much-needed reform of 
the air traffic control system, but they are not enough. Congress still 
has to reform the way air traffic control service is financed and move 
from a system financed by passenger taxes to one in which commercial 
users pay the costs of the services they use.
    The airline industry is at a crossroads. We can continue on the 
current course and continue to experience crowded airports, flight 
delays, and even higher passenger frustration. But if we act decisively 
now to improve our infrastructure, we can ensure that air travel in the 
21st century is the safest, most cost effective, most efficient in the 
world.
    I can hardly think of anything else the Government does now that the 
consumers feel more directly. And I certainly hope that what we're doing 
today will help. I believe it will. And I will try to wait patiently in 
those lines next year for Congress to do its part. [Laughter]
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:28 a.m. in Presidential Hall in the 
Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he 
referred to Keith Bellows, editor and vice president, National 
Geographic Traveler Magazine. The Executive order establishing the Air 
Traffic Organization is listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.