Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I want to say I am in complete agreement with what the Senator from Illinois has said. The idea that we would pass an…”

“I want to say I am in complete agreement with what the Senator from Illinois has said. The idea that we would pass an FAA reauthorization that would modernize our facilities, that would put more safety precautions in place, that would give passengers more rights and, oh, by the way, would also bankrupt some of our airlines in the meantime is ridiculous. The bill will be so good. Senator Rockefeller has done a great job. We have compromised. We have worked on a bipartisan basis. Then, all of a sudden, we see this pension issue rise up that would put one, maybe two airlines into bankruptcy, and then we have taken away all the advantages of this very good bill. I commend the Senator from Illinois. I look forward to working with him tomorrow on an amendment--or whenever we are designated to put our amendment in place--and hope the balance we had is restored in the pension issues so that airlines that are offering defined benefit plans--which are so rare these days--will still be able to offer employees that, even at a greater cost.”