Earl Blumenauer

Air travel is in flux right now. After two years where many of us often felt like the only person on a plane, airports are humming again.

I urge the Committee to expand AIP eligibility in FAA reauthorization to allow airports to tackle big projects without additional PFC funds.

I urge the Committee to engage in a robust discussion about long-term investment in our aviation system.

I have introduced a bill to increase the Passenger Facility Charge to align with inflation.

I urge the Committee to include language in FAA reauthorization that mirrors what was in a previous bill.

I have referenced and have put forward legislation on the de minimis loophole, where they are now importing directly over two million packages a day that escape any meaningful detection.

Watching now, 20 years later, they are doing this dual track, playing the developing country when it suits their purposes.

I was one of those people that took the Chinese representations at face value, voted to get them into the WTO.

We led efforts to pass forceful legislation in the trade title in the America COMPETES Act that helped workers and firms who have been displaced by offshoring to China.

I hope we can all agree that now is the time to move from rhetoric to action.

Creating sustainable funding streams for airport infrastructure projects must be a priority in this FAA Reauthorization.

There are things that we ought to be able to focus on and agree upon.

We don't have to continue paying twice as much for health care that on an international scale is mediocre.

I would think this is something that conservatives and liberals ought to be able to zero in on and be able to get more value.

I welcome any of my colleagues to run with those suggestions, but I would rather sort of think about this notion of tough decisions.

I think you will find bipartisan support on this committee to deal with the integrity of the Hospice Program so we are not cheating patients or the government.

American consumers, especially seniors, should not be held hostage.

The American public overwhelmingly supports it, and yet the Federal Government is hopelessly out of step.

I hope that you will commit to work with me and Chairman Smith as we move forward in a way that is fully consistent with the true definition of a free trade agreement.

But in terms of redefining what the terms are going to be, it is, in effect, sidestepping us.

None of us think that satisfies the condition. I have worked with five presidents on trade issues.

Yesterday's action by this committee, coming up with this fantasy that somehow the IRS can prioritize 1.28 million--excuse me, billion--payments a year, to try and sidestep our responsibility to raise the debt, I apologize for that.

When I consider the tone with which you were greeted, I am amazed that you are willing to come back.

I am appalled at the amount of fraud that occurred. But given the urgency, trying to help desperate people, I understand why we were there.

This hearing helps us set the context, and is a powerful reminder for me of what we were going through.