Jay Rockefeller: “yesterday, at the direction of the leadership, the House passed an FAA extension. Unlike the 20 previous FAA extensions…”

“yesterday, at the direction of the leadership, the House passed an FAA extension. Unlike the 20 previous FAA extensions, their extension included changes to FAA policy that had not been agreed to by both the House and the Senate--both Chambers. What is the effect? The effect is that move will begin to shut down the Federal Aviation Administration, beginning tomorrow at midnight, if we do not reach agreement on a sensible path forward to pass a clean FAA extension bill. The consequences of an FAA shutdown will be severe. This is not about me or the content of the extraneous provisions in the House bill. This is about being responsible and doing the necessary work to ensure our aviation system continues to function at its highest level while Congress completes its business. Over the past 4 years--which is how long we have been negotiating this bill--we have been able to work together to do the right thing each time the FAA authorities were about to expire. Congress has consistently acted to pass extensions to make certain the Nation's air transportation system continues to operate safely. Therefore, we have passed 20 extensions over 4 years waiting to do the work we need to do for an enormous Federal agency. In only one case were policy changes made during the consideration of an FAA extension, and that was last year.…”