On the recordMay 22, 2002
If this rule passes, one of our premier airlines is liable to go out of business because this rule specifically protects language that terminates the airline loan guarantee program. After the events of September 11, we passed legislation knowing that the airlines were hurting, knowing that some of them could go into insolvency. One airline in particular, U.S. Air, is headquartered at Washington's National Airport. Washington National Airport was closed down for an entire month, and for 8 months it has only had partial service. So understandably U.S. Airways has not had the revenue to stay afloat. That is what this loan guarantee program was for, but this rule protects $1.3 billion in savings by terminating the program because it knows that that is the amount of money that U.S. Airways needs to stay afloat. So we are forcing an airline into bankruptcy, 40,000 jobs, 204 cities served.
Source
govinfo.gov
