Mark Dayton: “Yesterday and this morning I placed holds on the nominations of 15 men and women for appointments in the executive…”

“Yesterday and this morning I placed holds on the nominations of 15 men and women for appointments in the executive branch. They have one characteristic in common. They all come from States of Senators or Members of the House of Representatives who have signed the Federal Aviation Administration conference report. This report, which will come before the Senate and the House after the August recess, steals the rightful authority of the Minnesota Metropolitan Airports Commission, which is a public body, its members appointed by the Governor, to make decisions about the lives of Minnesotans who live near our major international airport. The Report would prohibit Federal funds from being used for noise insulation of homes or apartment buildings where the airplane noise ranges from 60 to 64 decibels. This clause was not in the Senate bill and it was not in the House bill. It was neither considered nor acted upon by either body, nor by any of the committees of jurisdiction in the Senate or the House. There was no public notification about this intent. There were no hearings, no testimony, nothing about this particular clause.”