Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I withhold that suggestion. I did want to make one additional point. I did not do this when I talked about the issue of the Colgan tragedy. The larger question is not addressed directly in this legislation. We address many of these issues, but we do not address the larger question of commuting. I want to show, if I might, something Senator Rockefeller and I and others have used in the Commerce Committee. This map describes where the Colgan pilots commute from. But do you know what. This chart could probably have been describing almost any regional airline or any trunk airline or major airline, for that matter. Pilots live in one part of the country and work out of another part of the country. The fact is, with respect to this tragedy, the Colgan crash, I am convinced that mattered. I am convinced that flying through difficult nighttime icy conditions--with two pilots, neither of whom had slept in a bed the night previous--I am convinced this kind of commuting has caused significant difficulties. There was a Wall Street Journal piece that pretty much says it all. This was an veteran pilot describing the routine of commuter flights with short layovers in the middle of the night, which is pretty typical. He said: Take a shower, brush your teeth, pretend you slept. That is something we have to pay some attention to. I am not suggesting today that you cannot commute. We do not in this legislation prohibit commutes. But I think these are instructive pieces.…”