Political Quotes

“I want to thank Chairman DeFazio; the sponsor of the bill, the ranking member of the committee, Sam Graves; as well as Aviation Ranking Member Rick Larsen of Washington State. Madam Speaker, we need to be able to have the authority to make incentive payments. We have seen an extraordinary shift in aviation travel. In April of last year, there was a 95 percent reduction in airline passengers. We recently saw TSA screen the same number of passengers as before the pandemic. The aviation demand is coming back with a vengeance. Our airports are crowded. Our airlines are packed. Our airplanes are packed. What this allows the FAA to do is to provide incentive payments to expedite the completion of construction projects at airports. This is for safety. This is for additional capacity. This is going to ensure that the aviation industry, that our airport infrastructure can keep up with increased demand. And as the ranking member said, this same expedited authority and incentive payments is allowed in other forms of infrastructure. So I want to thank the ranking member, Sam Graves, for bringing up this commonsense legislation. Madam Speaker, I urge its adoption.”