Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this short-term bill to extend the FAA authorization for three months and tax revenue for one year gives us more time to negotiate bipartisan reforms that are needed. While I will support this extension, I'm concerned that Republicans are using this bill to buy time for privatization. Let me be clear: we should not privatize the FAA. Privatizing the FAA would put control of our skies in the hands of a private corporation that put profits over passenger safety. It gives that private corporation the power to tax the flying public who have no alternative. It would increase complexity and lead to higher costs for passengers. It would reduce air service to small and rural communities. And it hands a private corporation billions of dollars' worth of taxpayers' property and other assets--free of charge. Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who landed his disabled aircraft on the Hudson River in 2009, agrees. He told POLITICO: ``There ought to be other, better ways to make sure that air traffic control has long-term, consistent funding for capital improvements other than eviscerating access to the air traffic control system for anyone other than airlines.'' I think we can all agree that there are improvements that can and should be made to the FAA, and this bill gives us time to work toward them. But we should not cloak those improvements in a bill that gives up Congress's jurisdiction and harms taxpayers. The SPEAKER pro tempore.…”