On the recordFebruary 16, 2011
Let me catch up a bit on where we are. The Senate has been working on this national slots issue for close to 1 year or it may be 10 years. I don't know. It has been an awfully long time. But we have been unable to achieve a resolution so far on the matter. That is a problem. When we began consideration of the FAA reauthorization bill, Senator Hutchison and I decided we should focus on helping consumers. Everybody was talking about helping airliners. We were talking about people. Airliners fly around. People have to be able to do it. So we decided to focus on them. So we both believed the growth of Western States must be recognized. I come from an Eastern State, sort of. The Presiding Officer comes from an Eastern State, totally. But the growth is in the West. They are underserved. That cannot be debated. It is embarrassing how few flights there are back and forth between National and them. The National Capital is a fairly important place. People need to go there, either for tourism or for business or whatever, and we need more access to the National Capital to be provided to the citizens from there on a 'both-way' basis. So time is running short for the consideration of the FAA package. This bill is too important to the country to let it languish over this issue. It is virtually all we have talked about, and I regret that because it does not reflect the nature and the priorities of the bill.
