Date: 2003-10-28
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H

of 19.890.979 Florida. Mr. Speaker. for the purpose 19.601.125 of debate only. I yield the customary 30 20.012.291 minutes to the gentleman from Massa20.171.163 chusetts . pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution. all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. +59.682 Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 377 is a rule providing for the conference re+280.184 port accompanying H.R. 2115. the Flight 100Century of Aviation Reau+570.038 thorization Act to be recommitted to the conference committee. In an effort +158.872 to ensure support for the bill. the acrosathe- House committees of jurisdiction have committed to making this important R. legislation evbn better through another conference. I would like to thank the gentleman from Alaska (Chairman YOUNG) for his .cUPT. extraordinary leadership on this issue. as well as the other Members who have worked hard to make this a reality as we continue to address the concerns of Members on both sides of the aisle. Mr. Speaker. I urge my colleagues to support this important rule. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time. he House. Mr. MCGOVERN. Mr. Speaker. I yield myself 7 minutes. Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. "LINCOLN DIAZBALART) for yielding me the customary time. ERSEY. Mr. Speaker. the conference report for H.R. 2115. the FAA Reauthorization Act. is not quite ready for prime time. The good news is that the conference report is complete. The bad news is that there is no way it can pass the House in its current form. That is why we are here today. By voting for this LSKI. rule. the House will send this conre Senate. ference report back to the conference committee for further consideration. an action that is sorely needed. TTAL OF Mr. Speaker. the reason we need to ON H.R. recommit this conference report back URY OF to the conference committee is simple: {IZATION There are three major provisions in this bill that will undermine efforts to .ART of protect the American public. while direction weakening our countrys competitive I call up position in the international air cargo ik for its markets. The first and most obvious problem on. as fol- with the conference report is the provision that would allow for the immediate privatization of 69 air traffic conf this reso- trol towers. with the authority to priaccompany vatize all other air traffic control tow49. United ers after 4 years. If this provision beIns for the comes law. it will begin the dismantling of the air traffic control system as we know it. We cannot allow our air traffic control system to be farmed out to the lowest bidder. Safety must come first. and we cannot do it on the cheap. Members on both sides of the aisle feel so strongly about this provision that they have pledged to vote against the conference report. Mr. Speaker. FAA controllers responded magnificently during the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11. They successfully landed 4.482 aircraft within 2 hours without a single operational error. Their performance on that fateful day earned them the U.S. Department of Transportations highest award for achievement. But the fact of the matter is they did an outstanding job before 9/11. and they have continued to do so every day since. The FAA controllers and technicians are a highlyskilled group of dedicated professionals who deserve better than to be discarded just 2 short years after the world became so familiar with the challenges that they face. This conference report does not accord them the respect and the gratitude that they have earned and so rightly deserve. Contrary to the various claims that have been made. this provision would not just affect airports that exclusively serve general aviation aircraft. Eighteen of the airports included in the list of 69 airports that could be privatized are served by commercial carriers. This includes Hanscom Airfield in my home State of Massachusetts. which is served by several commercial carriers. including Continental. Delta and Northwest. But even more alarming is the fact that 11 of these 69 air towers are among the 50 busiest in the country. Now. as misguided as this provision is. the way it magically appeared in the conference report is just as galling. Not only was the provision not included in either bill passed by the House or the Senate. it runs completely counter to language in both the House and Senate bills that expressly prohibited the privatization of air traffic control. Yet. the conference committee. acting on orders from the White House. defied the wishes of the Members who serve in both Chambers and snuck this unwise. specialinterest provision into the conference report. This tactic. Mr. Speaker. is a new favorite of the Republican leadership. They ignore what the full House and full Senate have done. and secretly rewrite important bills in some back room. It is a terrible way to do the peoples business. It makes a mockery of the legislative process and confirms the most cynical suspicions people have about how this Congress operates. And it gets worse. A last minute oneword change in the conference report has changed antiterrorism training for flight crews from mandatory to discretionary. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 directed the Transportation Security Administration to issue security training guidelines for flight crews. Section 603 of the FAA conference report guts this directive in order to give air carriers the authority to establish such training requirements. The TSA has developed the training for Federal flight deck officers and the Federal air marshals. It only makes sense that the TSA should be responsible for developing the antiterrorism training for flight attendants so that there is a coordinated response from the entire flight crew in the event of a terrorist attack. To do anything less. Mr. Speaker. is to place special interests above passenger and crew safety. and that is absolutely unacceptable. The third and final provision of this conference report that must be fixed is the giveaway exemption that will allow foreign airlines to carry air cargo between two U.S. domestic points. provided one of those domestic points is in Alaska and only in Alaska. There is no similar exemption for international air cargo going through Hawaii. Florida or California. just Alaska. This provision represents an unprecedented change in U.S. transportation policy that for 200 years has protected domestic pointtopoint service from foreign competition. No other country in the world grants U.S. carriers the kind of open access to its domestic transportation network that this provision would grant to foreign carriers operating in the United States. It is unfathomable that we would make such a dramatic change to longstanding transportation policy without a single hearing or a minute of debate. Now. make no mistake. the Alaska cargo provision will add the U.S. aviation industry to manufacturing. textiles and other sectors of our economy that are hemorrhaging jobs to other countries. The U.S. airline industry has seen losses of $7 billion per year since September 11. resulting in the layoffs of 150.000 American workers. This provision will do nothing but harm our efforts to help the U.S. aviation industry recover. while widening the gaping holes that already exist in our homeland security with respect to screening air cargo. So. Mr. Speaker. it is important that the conference committee not just meet to strip the privatization provision. an action that will not fully fix the problem. but that the conference actually reconvene and address all of the flaws now contained in this bill. Mr. Speaker. I urge my colleagues to support this rule and send this conference report back to the conference committee. where. hopefully this time. the will of the House will be respected. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.