James Oberstar: “Without a great deal of enthusiasm, I oppose the amendment of the gentleman, although I supported it last year. But this…”

“Without a great deal of enthusiasm, I oppose the amendment of the gentleman, although I supported it last year. But this year we have in place in our FAA reauthorization bill a process that will cure the problem the gentleman has brought to the House floor. Frankly, the FAA has not been responsive to the gentleman from Florida. Worse, they have been dismissive. They have not consulted with him or with his airport or with the community that he represents. In the legislation that the gentleman from Illinois, chairman of the subcommittee and I have fashioned with bipartisan support, we have a process in place. Once our authorization bill is enacted, that will require the FAA to consult with communities, with airport authorities, with the Members of Congress on these consolidation proposals and report back to the Congress. We'll get another crack at it. We'll do it in due course and due appropriate process, not the way FAA is proposing to do it, certainly not with a base-closing commission approach that the administration offered to the Congress. Just today the gentleman from Illinois held a hearing on the wretched conditions in a great many of our air traffic control facilities, which the FAA is ignoring under the guise of modernization of air traffic control system. Well, come on. That's not happening for another 5 to 10 years.”