On the recordJune 29, 2012
I appreciate the comments of the Senator from West Virginia. Mr. President, I will make a couple comments and be more detailed later. I know a lot of people will want to talk about the bill that will most likely pass today in both the House and the Senate. A lot of people are not aware of the fact that a general aviation pilot doesn't have the same access to remedies as everybody else does. What makes this a little bit more compelling to do something about is that if you are not a pilot, you may not appreciate the fact that a lot of them are single-issue people. I had an experience where my license was in jeopardy for something that we found out I didn't do. I thought about all these complaints I have had over the years about abusive treatment by some of the enforcement people, and I never appreciated it until it happened to me. I know more people in the FAA who do a great job. They are very conscientious. These are career people. The problem is that every once in a while you have someone in the field with enforcement powers who just can't handle that kind of power. I was mayor of Tulsa for several years a number of years back. We had a great police force, but every now and then you had someone on the force who couldn't handle the power. They would abuse that power, and you would have to seek them out. And that is what this is all about-- you hear from these people when abuses take place. So what we have done is we have corrected that.…
