Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today Chairman Baucus filed an original bill and an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, bill currently being considered by the Senate. Both of these items are identical. They reflect the revenue title to the FAA bill that was reported by the Finance Committee last Tuesday. I am hopeful that this heralds the passage of long-term FAA reauthorization and represents a break with our ongoing pattern of funding the FAA with short-term extensions of current law. In most respects the Finance Committee product reflects the FAA bill that was passed unanimously last year with 93 votes. However, there is a very important difference. Thanks to an amendment filed by Senator Coburn, who is a new member of the Finance Committee, only 90 percent of forecasted revenues to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund for a given year will be spent. Over the past several years the uncommitted cash balance remaining in the trust fund has steadily decreased because actual revenues have fallen short of forecast revenues. Since recipients of trust fund revenues expect to be paid in real dollars and not forecasted dollars, it makes sense to make sure the trust fund contains actual dollars. By allowing only 90 percent of forecast trust fund revenues to be spent, we are putting in place a 10 percent cushion to guard against the frequent occurrence that actual trust fund revenues will fall short of projected revenues.…”