James Oberstar: “I thank the gentleman for yielding and compliment Mr. Costello on the splendid job he has done in crafting the FAA…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding and compliment Mr. Costello on the splendid job he has done in crafting the FAA authorization bill, and the partnership with Mr. Petri, and also with Mr. Mica, the Republican leader on the committee who once chaired the aviation subcommittee. And together we have fashioned a really solid bill for the future. We passed it in two Congresses. It's well past time for the Senate to act on this bill, and finally they did, 93-0. However, the current program, the current law, as I expressed in my colloquy with Mr. Mica, is the longest standing FAA authorization bill, simply because we haven't passed the next authorization. The House has done its job, as it always does, in two Congresses. We first passed this bill in 2007, and were blockaded by the White House that threatened veto over certain provisions of the bill. But the Senate never even took it up. We never got close to conference, so we passed it again last year. And now we need an extension. And we passed the extension, but the FAA came back to us and said, well, before this extension is enacted, we request a technical correction to a provision of the bill relating to formula grants. Within the Airport Improvement Program, this technical correction ensures that sufficient funds will be allocated to formula grants, rather than discretionary grants.”