Political Quotes

“I want to thank the chairman, Mr. Shuster, and the ranking member, Mr. DeFazio, for bringing a bipartisan bill to the floor. This is a piece of legislation that is long overdue. I think we have had--how many extensions?--five extensions. This bill is needed for air traffic. As everybody knows in this room, if you take Alaska, which is 2\1/2\ times the size of Texas, we don't have any roads; we have air travel. Everybody travels in Alaska, probably more than you travel in your car, by airplane. So this bill handles a lot of the problems in Alaska that we have been addressing through the FAA, which plays a major role. Number one is Essential Air Service. Many people don't understand the history of Essential Air Service. When we deregulated the airlines, Alaska was left out. Senator Stevens and I kept regulated airlines for 2 extra years until we got the commitment from Essential Air Service so we can serve our communities, and this committee has always seen to it that that did occur. Now, it has been used in other rural areas of America. I understand that need. There will be an amendment to do away with Essential Air Service. I hope all of you will vote against that. It is crucially important to my State. We have another small issue that has come up--and I want to thank the chairman again--which is lithium batteries. These were talked about, and it was just talked about by the ranking member.…”