Bud Shuster: “Here we are with a short-term extension for 6 months. I believe it is critical that we do this, obviously, as it is…”

“Here we are with a short-term extension for 6 months. I believe it is critical that we do this, obviously, as it is about to expire. There are things that not only do we want to do, but we need to do, to make sure that we have the safest airspace in the world. We also need to make sure it is the most efficient airspace in the world. We can do that if we deploy the technology and the things we have been talking about for almost 2 years now to transform the FAA into something that can move quicker, that can deploy the technology that is available to us. When we look around the world, there are over 50 countries that have taken the air traffic control organization out of government and have been able to maintain the highest levels of safety, but deploy technology that makes their airspace more efficient. That is the kind of thing we are looking at. I think we are at a critical time. What we have been talking about is not anything new. It is something that we have been talking about for 20 years. In fact, the Clinton administration had a similar proposal, the Bush administration had a similar proposal, and here we are today talking about it. But I think that we have different groups that are looking positively at this.…”