Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I thank the ranking member and Chairman Shuster for their work on this bill, on this block of amendments, in which I have an amendment that I drafted that would allow airports to apply for grants from the small airport fund to construct air traffic control towers for participation in the Federal Contract Tower Program. This provision will ensure that our airspace remains the gold standard for safety by helping small airports currently operating without towers to invest in lifesaving safety infrastructure. It is my understanding that because this will be a new eligibility, the FAA will need to classify the construction of an air traffic control tower under the Airports Capital Improvement Plan to ensure that it is scored properly for purposes of determining grant awards through the national priority ranking system. Mr. Chair, I ask the chairman if he will agree with me that: first, the FAA has never classified control towers under ACIP before; second, that the FAA should plan to ensure that these high-priority projects are classified properly for consideration in grant decisions; and third, that they should be classified in a manner that provides them with an appropriate, level playing field with other projects to ensure competitiveness, and I ask the chairman if he agrees on these three provisions.”