Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Senator Rockefeller will be back on the floor shortly. We are on the FAA reauthorization bill. This is the fourth day in the Senate that we have been trying to pass the FAA reauthorization bill. We have accepted many amendments. We have had many amendments offered that have nothing at all to do with this legislation. I understand that. I think we voted on three or four of them last night. But the process of trying to get something through the Senate these days is slow and difficult. It is a little like watching paint dry to see activity on the floor of the Senate. We are trying very hard to do this. This is not and should not be a controversial bill. Every American who gets on a commercial airplane in this country has a stake in this bill. This bill includes modernization of the air traffic control system which will allow people to fly in the skies more safely, more direct routes, save energy, and save pollution. Modernization of the air traffic control system, to go from ground- based radar to a GPS navigation system--we should have done that a while ago. We have not. We need to catch up with the Europeans and others. We need to move with some dispatch. This bill should have been done long ago, but it has been extended 11 times.”