Political Quotes

“I rise today regarding H.R. 1979, the Small Airport Safety, Security and Air Service Improvement Act of 2002. This measure allows small airports to use Federal Airport Improvement Program funds to construct and equip privately operated contract towers. Under current law, these grants cannot be used to construct airport control towers not operated by FAA air traffic controllers. I, along with every other Democratic member on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, am supportive of the primary provisions of H.R. 1979 to simply authorize the use of Federal funds to support the building of new towers. However, this measure also includes a provision that retroactively reimburses towers that were constructed under an express agreement that the Federal Government would pay the cost of staffing the towers but not the construction costs.”