James Oberstar: “Mr. Speaker, I, of course, support H.R. 2036, the War Risk Insurance Reauthorization Act of 1997. This is one of several…”

“Mr. Speaker, I, of course, support H.R. 2036, the War Risk Insurance Reauthorization Act of 1997. This is one of several times we have come to the floor to reauthorize this legislation, and this particular reauthorization extends the program until December 31, 1998. This is very important legislation. It may not seem large in the great scheme of things that we do in the House or even on our Committee on Transportation, but this particular legislation is vitally important to our national security effort. This bill includes provisions to ensure that the program will run more smoothly the next time we have to call upon the airlines to engage in national security support initiatives. The War Risk Insurance Program was most recently put into operation during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. U.S. air carriers flew thousands of U.S. troops and tons of equipment from the United States and from Europe into the Middle East theater of operations. During that period of time, the FAA issued nonpremium war risk insurance for some 5,000 commercial flights that operated air lift services as part of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet.”