Tom Coburn: “I will finish my point, and then I will turn the time over to the Senator. Mr. President, the Federal Radionavigation…”

“I will finish my point, and then I will turn the time over to the Senator. Mr. President, the Federal Radionavigation Plan is a 120-page report. Let me just go through it real quickly. FAA has said: Sufficient alternative navigational aids exist in the event of a loss of GPS-based services. They have VOR, which they have in Alaska. The Maritime Administration determined that there would not be significant disruption in the movement of vessels in and out of U.S. ports or affect commercial enterprises as traditional aids to navigation are still in use and capable. The Department of Homeland Security has determined that LORAN-C is not needed as a backup for timing users, as adequate alternatives are already in place. The Federal Railroad Administration said they have no need for LORAN. The bottom line: The accuracy of LORAN in these areas can be equally degraded and compromised, and therefore, there would be no material degradation in navigational safety should GPS be the only RNAV source for Alaska. Traditional backups for maritime navigation would still be in place: VTSs, buoys, ranges, radar, lighthouses, and fathometers. Since 1997, $160 million has been appropriated to recapitalize LORAN. $117.5 million of that has been transferred to the Coast Guard. It is estimated that it will take another 6 to 10 years and $300-plus million to recapitalize that.…”