Bud Shuster: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for pointing out the potential for a…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for pointing out the potential for a prolonged period to get to NextGen. We forget it has been a prolonged period. For over 20 years, we have been trying to get NextGen in the current system, and we haven't been able to get it. It is the GAO, it is the Inspector General of the Transportation Department, and it is numerous reports that have said there is no end in sight as to when we can get NextGen, a GPS-based system. Let me just point out--the gentleman mentioned Canada, which is a model we are looking at very closely. We certainly have made it to be an American model. But what has Canada done? Canada, in this type of system, a not-for-profit corporation--which this corporation will not be able to raise taxes, will not be able to put taxes. It will go to a user fee-based system. What has Canada done? They have decreased the cost of those user fees by 30 percent over the last 20 years, a 30 percent decrease. What they are doing this year is that the Canadian Nav Can will launch its first batch of satellites, and over the next 13, 14 months, until the next year of 2017, they will launch 70-plus satellites. They will have visibility of 100 percent of the world's global airspace. Today all of us together see about 30 percent. The Canadians will do this based on a system that we are trying to move toward to implement. So it has been a great success for Canada. It has lower costs.…”