Maxwell Frost: “Last night, Mr. Speaker, we were all impressed by the President's resolve. Today, this Congress continues the work of…”

“Last night, Mr. Speaker, we were all impressed by the President's resolve. Today, this Congress continues the work of helping America recover and rebuild from last week's cowardly, barbaric attack. On September 11, terrorists murdered thousands of innocent people. They also struck directly at the fabric of America's economy, seeking to cripple our air transportation system. Make no mistake, there is strong bipartisan support for stabilizing America's air transportation system and for ensuring the victims of September 11 get the assistance they need as they rebuild their lives. How to do those things is a difficult and complex question, but a crucially important one. At stake is nothing less than the strength of the economy, hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and our values and way of life. So Democrats and Republicans have been working overtime to craft a bipartisan emergency package. All of those who have spent the last week hashing out this bill, especially Leader Gephardt, Speaker Hastert, and Ranking Member Oberstar, deserve enormous credit. Mr. Speaker, since the Federal Government grounded air traffic last week, the airline industry has been losing billions of dollars.”