Political Quotes

“I assume we will report the FAA reauthorization bill shortly, and I believe Senator Rockefeller will be on his way. He is chairing the Commerce Committee hearing right now. I will go over and chair the hearing in his stead when he comes to the floor. Prior to bringing the bill to the floor today or prior to making it the order of the day, let me just speak in morning business before we get to the bill. I wanted to talk just for a minute. Yesterday, I talked about what is in the FAA reauthorization bill. Much of what we will discuss today is about commercial aviation--getting on an airliner someplace and flying across the country or across the world. But I wanted to mention that there is another component to this, and that is what is called general aviation. General aviation is a very large and increasingly important component of air travel in this country. In a State such as my home State of North Dakota, which is a very large State and one that does not have a great deal of interstate commercial airline service, the use of private planes is very prevalent, and general aviation plays a very significant role in our economy. I learned to fly many years ago. I am not a current pilot at all. I was not even very good at it, I don't think. But I learned to fly and got out of the airplane one day, when the instructor said: You are ready.…”