Daniel Glickman: “I rise today to alert my colleagues to a bill I have been working on for many years, a bill which deals with liability…”

“I rise today to alert my colleagues to a bill I have been working on for many years, a bill which deals with liability problems affecting small airplane manufacturers. I know that many of my colleagues are familiar with this legislation, not only because I have sponsored it in every Congress for the last 8 years, but because the current bill now has 280 sponsors, or nearly two-thirds of this House. The bill creates a 15-year statute of repose for general aviation, which means that after 15 years after the date of manufacture, you could no longer sue the manufacturer of the airplane for problems that occur with respect to that airplane. Similar legislation has twice been reported out of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation. Companion legislation has been reported out of the Senate Commerce Committee, but frankly, to date the House Committee on the Judiciary has not taken action on this legislation. I am still working with the chairman, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Brooks] on this matter. But let me tell the Members this is an extremely frustrating matter to watch this bill languish while thousands of jobs have been lost in my district and across the country. In the general aviation industry alone, 100,000 jobs have been lost since 1983.”