Jim Inhofe: “I think it would be redundant for me to go back and repeat what I said before. The Senator from Texas talked about the X…”

“I think it would be redundant for me to go back and repeat what I said before. The Senator from Texas talked about the X on the runway. I made it very clear by the time you can see the X on the runway when you are cleared to land and you have a sophisticated plane that is full of passengers, there is a point beyond which you can't go in terms of your plane is dirtied up making a go- around. Obviously it wasn't necessary because I had 7,000 empty feet to come around, but that is not important because that is not the issue. I recognize and respect Senator Hutchison in the fact that she was on the NTSB, and I know that obviously is meaningful to her, as it is to Senator Rockefeller. What we are dealing with here is we have a committee--and I have a lot of respect for the committee for which Senator Rockefeller is the chairman and Senator Hutchison is the ranking member, and this committee is the committee of jurisdiction. Now, what did I do? I introduced this bill a year ago. I talked about it. We had 25 cosponsors at that time. We had endorsements from all over the country. We had the National Air Traffic Controllers Association come in. We sent out ``Dear Colleagues'' to talk to people. Again, we sent a letter to the Commerce Committee that Senator Hutchison was on at that time requesting a hearing. We had 32 cosponsors signing that letter, requesting a hearing, some of which were on the Commerce Committee. Nothing happened.…”