James Oberstar: “it is cities, more than States, that have advanced the cause of aviation in the United States. Until 1958, there were…”

“it is cities, more than States, that have advanced the cause of aviation in the United States. Until 1958, there were only 7 States that provided any support financially for airport construction and development. In the 1940s, Chicago's city council looked into the crystal ball, saw the future of aviation and had the foresight to acquire orchard fields and an additional 7,000 acres to build this treasure of an airport, O'Hare, that was named for a World War II hero. Similarly, LaGuardia was the brainchild of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who sought to capitalize on the great success of Newark Airport, and built what was then a treasure on the East Coast. And the same with Atlanta. Hartsfield Airport was the vision of Alderman and Mayor William Hartsfield. So we are now dealing with the need to look into the future of aviation in the United States. When traffic backs up at O'Hare, it backs up all the way around the world. Delays at O'Hare affect traffic as far away as Frankfurt, in Europe, and Tokyo on the Pacific Rim. This legislation, and I have spent a great deal of time looking at the airport runway reconfiguration, will allow operations of all weather conditions, simultaneous operations. It will make possible simultaneous operations under all but the very worst zero visibility conditions, and that would be a huge improvement over the existing situation at O'Hare. There have been allegations about the constitutionality of this legislative proposal.”