Tim Kaine: “I rise to talk about the FAA reauthorization bill that is pending before the Senate now. And I want to begin by thanking…”

“I rise to talk about the FAA reauthorization bill that is pending before the Senate now. And I want to begin by thanking the chair of Commerce, Senator Cantwell, and her ranking member, Senator Cruz, for doing something very important. It is critical that this FAA reauthorization bill happen. And as I look at the bill, I see many provisions that I strongly support, and I applaud the committee for their work. In particular, the committee has addressed the critical shortage in air traffic control, which is incredibly important to the safety of our skies; and, second, the committee dealt with a challenging issue surrounding pilot training hours, and, I think, came up with a solution that is going to be the right solution. So I begin with: This is a big bill with a lot of provisions, and I find much to like in almost all of it. But I rise to address the one piece of it where I am not supportive, and that is the mandate that the Senate committee version contains to add five slots--or ten flights--to one of the most delay-prone and congested airports in the United States, Reagan National Airport, otherwise known as DCA. And I want to spend a little bit of time going into this issue, as the Senator representing Virginia. But I stand together with the support of colleagues--the Senators from Maryland, Senator Van Hollen and Senator Cardin; the Senator from Virginia, Senator Warner.…”