On the recordJuly 25, 2012
I thank the gentleman for yielding. On February 12, 2009, Flight 3407 crashed into a house in my district, killing all the passengers and an individual in his home. Out of that devastation arose a spirit that actually united this Congress in enacting flight safety and pilot training rules that would have prevented the crash. The families never gave up, coming to talk to Members of Congress over 50 times over 3 years, and they are eagerly awaiting the final implementation of potentially lifesaving rules. It sounds like a happy ending, doesn't it? Yet, this week, because the House Rules Committee refused to allow my amendment to protect those specific rules, we are at risk of losing all those hard-fought, bipartisan safety reforms. With the so-called Regulatory Freeze Act, these reforms would simply die. So those who voted for them in the past are now calling them job killing? Well, I call them people saving. Listen, I know we need to end overburdensome regulations, and I voted against many of them, the ones that hurt our farmers and small businesses. I hear about that in upstate New York. But there's a commonsense way to do it. But to freeze all government regulations, all of them, regardless of the health and safety of our citizens is over the top, even for this town. Flight safety rules are just one example.…
