Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the gentleman very much for yielding time. Let me first say that the administration enthusiastically supports…”

“I thank the gentleman very much for yielding time. Let me first say that the administration enthusiastically supports the work of Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Larsen for the great work that they have done. This is good for America. This is good for Houston, Texas, and it is good for Texas. I have two airports in the region, including Hobby International Airport and Bush Intercontinental Airport, and Ellington Field that see some commercial flights. It is good that we will get between $3.35 billion and $4 billion to help in the airport funding program of which I saw about 40 to 80 million come to our Bush Intercontinental Airport in the last couple of weeks. It is important to have the flexibility to deal with environmental issues, and, of course, it is extremely important to have a $45 million training program for a pipeline for pilots, aviation maintenance, and aviation manufacturing. Why? Because schools like Texas Southern University that uniquely has one of the only HBCUs training of pilots program will be able to do more and fill that pipeline with pilots. In addition, we respond to the assaults that have been occurring against employees and crew, and respond by an employee assault prevention response plan, which is extremely important. We did this during 9/11, but now we are looking at more secondary cockpit barriers that will be more important. As well, we want to make sure that we have a task force of air carriers.…”