Aviation Investment and Revitalization Vision Act

AVIATION INVESTMENT AND REVITALIZATION VISION ACT

    Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to strongly support the Aviation Investment and Revitalization Vision Act.

    I want to first applaud the tremendous leadership on this bill from my chairman on the Commerce Committee, Senator McCain, and Senator Hollings, the ranking member.

    This legislation reaffirms our Government's critical commitment to a safe, efficient, and state-of-the-art airline system for the 21st century—a commitment that is crucially important to my home State.

    The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is the principal airport for the Northwest region, making it the Nation's 16th largest passenger airport, with over 26.5 million passengers annually on almost 40 different airlines going in and out of the Seattle-Tacoma airport.

    Washington State is also the home to the ninth largest airline in the country, Alaska Airlines, which employs over 10,000 people and is one of the few airlines in the country actually posting growth rates over the last few years. In addition, Alaska is nationally recognized for its leadership to incorporate technology into its business model.

    As the proud home of Boeing's commercial aviation division, Washington State leads the Nation in large civil aircraft manufacturing.

    With Boeing and hundreds of smaller businesses in aerospace and aviation, we have over 75,000 workers designing and manufacturing the present and future of U.S. aircraft industry.

    Obviously, a solid, well functioning, state-of-the-art national air traffic system and a strong domestic aircraft manufacturing capability are critical to my State and our Nation.

    I am proud to say that this bipartisan legislation takes tremendous steps towards this goal in several ways.

    First, this bill increases funding for airport infrastructure investments that will help our Nation's airports make the improvements, upgrades and expansions necessary to meet our Nation's airline demands in the 21st century.

    The bill also increases the funding that will be used to upgrade the FAA air traffic control system, to ensure that our traffic controllers are given the resources they need to continue getting planes where they need to go—in the safest and most efficient manner.

    In addition, this bill addresses a critical resource need facing our Nation's airports since 9/11 increased security updates. The legislation not only provides $500 million in funding for security enhancements, but it ensures that this funding is not taken from the airport trust fund money that is already committed to make important structural upgrades and airport improvements.

    Last, in what I think is one of the most important contributions of this bill, the legislation includes a dramatic expansion in our Nation's commitment to aviation research and safety.

    Mr. President, a renewed commitment to research and development in the aerospace industry is absolutely necessary—and we need it now.

    The Final Report of the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry argued that current Federal aerospace R&D is "insufficient and unfocused" and recommended in the Federal Government significantly increase its investment in aerospace research to foster an efficient, secure, and safe aerospace transportation system.

    We must clearly recognize that if we are not willing to make the commitments to retain leadership in this realm, our allies on the other side of the Atlantic certainly are willing to take our place—in fact, this effort has become European policy.

    Indeed, the European Commission has declared in its "STAR-21" report that it is willing to explore "all available means" to ensure the competitiveness of the European aerospace sector—including Airbus.

    This support to the European aerospace sector comes in the form of substantial research and development, but also in direct product development grants, concessionary financing, and other direct subsidies.

    While we have chosen, as a matter of Government policy, not to pursue such direct subsidies or provide assistance for product development, we have been able to help the research and development effort through a variety of research programs that both of your agencies have pursued.

    It is time for the United States to reinforce our Nation's place as a leader in the aerospace sector—an industry is an absolutely crucial component of our domestic industrial base.

    For this reason, I am very proud that this bill includes provisions originally introduced by Senator Hollings, that would establish an Office of Aerospace and Aviation Liaison in the Department of Transportation that will draw upon staff from FAA, NASA, DHS, DOD, DOC, and other appropriate agencies to coordinate Federal research programs, as well as establish goals and priorities for research.

    Such an office will be well equipped to meet the challenge of the Aerospace Commission and bring direction and coordination to our Federal support for long-term research and innovation.

    In addition, this bill authorizes almost $3 billion over the next 3 years for FAA and NASA research priorities. This is a dramatic expansion of the research agenda, almost five times more than previously authorized funding—previous authorization was approximately $600 million over 3 years.

    As part of these research provisions, I am particularly proud to have worked with the committee to include funding and authority for future work on the durability and maintainability of advanced materials, such as composites.

    These next generation materials have been called the aluminum of the future. Indeed, given their strength, durability, lightweight and unique properties, composites are currently used in most major defense aircraft.

    Composites not only make for stronger, safer materials but also lighter and more efficient aircraft.

    Already, the Boeing Company has increased its use of composites in the production of the 777 and Airbus is also using composites in its planes. Additionally, Boeing has plans for even greater use in the production of the next generation of commercial airplanes.

    In addition to authorizing funds for general research in advanced materials, this legislation would direct the FAA Administrator to establish a "Center for Excellence" that would harness the great engineering research in materials science at path-breaking institutions like the University of Washington, which has taken great strides in pursuing work on how to advance the maintainability and durability of advanced materials and composites in large civilian aircraft.

    While we know that these materials hold tremendous potential, we need to be absolutely sure that they are safe and that we have the technologies and processes necessary to maintain the materials and ensure their durability.

    Such a center, which I have drafted in partnership with the University of Washington's Department of Engineering, would address these issues by facilitating close, working collaboration among industry, the FAA's Transportation Division, and academic institutions, to ensure that research matches the practical manufacturing needs.

    This center will advance efforts to capitalize on the potential of this field.

    In closing, Mr. President, as a government, we need to step up to the plate to ensure that our aerospace industry remains competitive and capable of leading the world toward the future for aerospace.

    This bill takes an important step in affirming our Nation's leadership in the areas of safety, research, infrastructure, and security, and I am proud to support it.