Byron Dorgan

I just put the money in the appropriations bill. The President just signed my legislation the Energy and Water Appropriations bill just days ago.

After what happened last spring in North Dakota with a very substantial amount of flooding many parts of our State, we, of course, became very active on the Red River.

But in order for you to move to the next phase you need a local sponsor?

It will be advisable at some moment for the Corps of Engineers to decide to hold a hearing here in North Dakota.

I'm sure it was not lost on everybody in North Dakota that we came very close to having a significant, significant devastation of the largest population center as a result of a record flood.

It's the right thing to do and an important thing to do.

Nobody wants to go through this again.

The very title implies that the process is broken, so our title says this is about fixing it.

After many years of review and unanimous agreement on the need for change, little has actually been done.

I do think, though, that we have not always done the best job we can in our agencies to make sure that we understand what needs to be changed and how do we make sure it happens.

With respect to the 90 minutes of an airplane flying at 37,000 or whatever its altitude, the country, the authorities were all deaf and blind for an hour and a half with respect to a commercial carrier, which is just unforgiveable.

It is unacceptable that we have the enforcement agency or the other agency that should implement recommendations by and large ignoring them.

I mean, when we started, I talked about the 1999 upbraiding of the FAA by the NTSB, 10 years prior to the Colgan crash, on icing.

The only reason I ask about that. This is a very unusual circumstance since 9/11 of a large commercial airplane flying out of contact for an hour and a half.

But you are not going out investigating highway accidents, are you, at the NTSB?

One of the most significant issues here is enforcement, not just recommendations, but with what enforcement do we see the agencies and also the carriers implement recommendations.

But when I dissect your answer, it sounds to me like there is a lot that needs to be done in this area

Is there currently a prohibition by the FAA that you are aware of with respect to the personal electronic devices or personal computers while flying an airplane?

I want to just make one final statement, and that is I don't know what happens in the cockpits.

I asked the question not to imply that foreign repair stations necessarily are of lesser quality than domestic repair stations.

But we are going to call him back in front of the Committee in the near future and ask, all right, you have made certain representations about what you are doing. Let us find out what you did.

I think that we have to examine that as a part of the beginning of a very serious problem.

The families of victims of accidents I understand do not have a representative that participates in any NTSB investigation.

It seems to me that your evaluation is that the NTSB is a pretty good organization, doing pretty well.

It seems to me scrimping on the issue of safety is a pretty unwise selection.