Political Quotes

“I thank the Chair. The problem we face here is that most people are in the air coming in this direction. Most will land around 5 o'clock. So Senator Hutchison and myself don't feel any particular pressure. We can talk for long periods of time and talk about other issues. Today we are considering the FAA conference report which has been the subject of negotiations--I shudder when I say that--between the House and the Senate for much of the past year, and actually we have been working on it for much longer than that. We have been through 23 extensions. We are now looking at the possibility of a bill that will, in fact, last for 4 years, which will be the best news that the airline industry ever had, that the people who work for the airline industry ever had, that the people who work to improve the safety of the airline people ever had, including those who are doing a new traffic control system. So I am very happy that, as we call it, the FAA Modernization Reform Act of 2012 will extend the authorities through 2015. As the Presiding Officer is aware, we have done this for 2 months, 3 months-- time after time after time--and it makes it impossible to negotiate and it is terribly destabilizing for the aviation industry as well as the Federal Aviation Administration. This agreement is going to provide a lot of stability to the FAA-- they will be happy about that--and it will make certain there is adequate funding to support the agency's mission.…”