Well, brainiac down at OMB, you know, wrote this into a rule, which somehow has never gotten changed at OMB.
Peter DeFazio
The Public Record
Peter DeFazio is a former U.S. Representative from Oregon, serving in the House from 1987 until 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he was known for his progressive stance on various issues, including transportation, infrastructure, and environmental policy. DeFazio played a significant role in shaping legislation related to transportation funding and was a strong advocate for public transit and sustainable practices.
I am working with Chairman Chaffetz on OMB reform because I keep running into them doing all sorts of things that do not make sense for the U.S. Government or the taxpayers of the United States of America.
I heard exactly those same things a couple of months before ValuJet when my amendment was defeated, and then my colleague said: Oops, that doesn’t look too good, does it?
I don't know. My understanding is from the GAO documents that it was set at $500 million and that it hasn't been indexed.
I am hoping the panel will discuss what our role should be after 2023, when the moratorium on FAA regulating safety expires.
But if someone were doing something that you thought was going to exceed $500 million, you would just say: Well, you buy $500 million and the Government will take care of the rest?
I understand that we want to promote this industry, and we do. You know, this is great for the U.S. to maintain our leadership in space, but the question is, why would we have the same agency promote and oversee safety?
I mean this whole process is aggravating. I mean I think we are screening out, potentially--at least one, and I am sure there is more than one--qualified people from becoming controllers.
Our air traffic controllers are doing a phenomenal job. Some of them are being forced into mandatory overtime, 6-day weeks.
The issue is critical. You know, many people have been talking about this for years.
So if we had a, actually, applied working group that drilled down into each center and came up with higher numbers, why do we even bother with the mathematical algorithm that popped out of the finance department with the target minimum…
I mean what is the goal? I mean if the goal is to get people--you know, because it becomes more expensive as you go through the process.
I would suggest, since we are doing a lot of pretend legislation around here on the floor, maybe we should do some real legislation.
It actually came to the conclusion it should be an independent Government corporation removed from the Federal budget process.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Administrator Flowers, I realize you're briefly on the job.
I hope that Congress will soon allocate additional funds for the new obligations we put on your agency.
It is pretty embarrassing when in what is called the capital of the free world, the greatest country on Earth, American exceptionalism, we are killing people on a transit system.
You mentioned the same thing I did in my opening statement about the backlog in deferring maintenance.
This is a very modest proposal which would do a great deal to grow America's small businesses.
I think this is a very common-sense proposal that would stimulate a tremendous amount of growth in small businesses.
For the first time since Prohibition we have more breweries in the United States than at any time in our history, 4,300.





