America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, in a few moments, we will be voting on ending debate on H.R. 636, and that will allow us to proceed to a vote on the bipartisan Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2016. I wish to urge my colleagues to support that motion to end debate.

The legislation we are considering is not just any FAA reauthorization. This bill is the most pro-passenger and pro-security FAA reauthorization in recent history. Travelers are frustrated, and this bill contains commonsense reforms to make travel safe and secure and more passenger-friendly.

For over 2 weeks on the Senate floor now and before that in the Commerce Committee, where I serve as chairman, we have been working hard to thoughtfully develop this bill and to allow for robust debate. For instance, there are drone safety provisions in the bill, including a pilot program to deploy technology to intercept drones near airports. These provisions are obviously intended to prevent accidents like the one that happened outside the Heathrow Airport this weekend, where a drone hit an approaching plane.

We developed this provision and others in the bill through an open process that allowed every member of the committee to contribute and help write the bill. Last year, we held six hearings on topics that helped inform our bill, and at the committee markup last month alone, we accepted 57 amendments, 34 of which were sponsored by Democrats and 23 by Republicans. On the Senate floor, when it was reported out and taken up, we added 19 amendments, 10 from Democrats and 9 from Republican Senators. The resulting bill is one we can be proud of, and both sides of the aisle have commended us for our inclusive process. When there have been differences, we have been able to find ways to address or set those aside for later so the progress on the legislation could move forward.

Even at this late hour, we have worked constructively to assemble a possible managers' package of more than two dozen additional amendments that we would like to adopt by voice vote prior to final passage. Yet, even if that is not possible, I commit to those Senators whose amendments we stand prepared to accept that I will work to address their concerns as we engage with our colleagues in the House of Representatives.

Now it is time to conclude our work on the bipartisan FAA bill that I introduced a long ways back, along with my friend and ranking member, Senator Bill Nelson, and our Aviation Subcommittee leaders, Senators Kelly Ayotte and Maria Cantwell.

The bill includes reforms benefiting the traveling public, and we shouldn't let them down. Let's vote yes on the motion to end debate and start moving these historic reforms forward.

As I mentioned, I have a list of 26 amendments that we would like to clear--amendments offered by both sides. It is a package we could adopt. We have a couple of objections to doing that. If the Members who have put forward those objections would be willing to release those objections, we would be able to get another 26 amendments adopted, many of which have been offered by colleagues, as I said, on both sides and many of which contain measures that I think will make the bill even stronger and make it a product we can all be proud of as it moves over to the House of Representatives. There, I hope it will receive consideration and action and ultimately end up on the President's desk.

The FAA bill is legislation we have to do on a fairly routine basis around here. This authorization will stand for about 18 months. There are a number of important considerations that need to be addressed that this bill not only acknowledges but addresses. As I mentioned, those considerations have to do with drone safety, which is an increasingly important issue in our economy and one where we need to make sure we have the right rules of the air, if you will, in place so that we preserve and ensure that safety is the No. 1 factor as we continue to see the increased research, development, and deployment of drone technologies in ways that have tremendous commercial application. As I said, it also includes a lot of passenger protections which are very consumer-friendly in terms of passengers who travel on a regular basis with the airlines. So those are things as well that we need to address in this legislation.

We enhanced the bill by amendment when it came to the floor with a couple of safety provisions that we think are critically important, particularly in light of what has happened of late with the attack in Brussels and a number of other attacks we have seen, where we have had aviation insiders involved, if you will--particularly the Metrojet airliner that crashed not that long ago and killed 224 people. There are a number of safety provisions that help address some of those concerns. As I said, we expand the TSA precheck program to limit the number of people who are in areas outside secure areas--outside the perimeter, so to speak--where they are more vulnerable to these types of attacks.

These are all included in this legislation. So from an aviation security standpoint, this bill includes the most comprehensive security measures we will have adopted in nearly a decade. As I said before, from a passenger-friendly standpoint, according to a columnist at the Washington Post, this is one of the most passenger-friendly FAA reauthorization bills we have seen literally in a generation. So these are reasons why this bill needs to move forward.

I hope my colleagues here in the Senate, when the vote comes here in a few minutes, will cast a vote in support of ending debate and allow us to move forward to a vote on final passage, which will enable this legislation to move forward to the House of Representatives and I hope ultimately to the President so he can sign it into law and put many of these provisions in place that would be good for our country.

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