Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 30, 2005)
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AMENDMENT OFFERED BY MR. SANDERS
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
This tripartisan amendment is being cosponsored by the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hostettler), the gentlewoman from South Dakota (Ms. Herseth), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo), the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Boren), the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays), and the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro). It also has the strong support of the AFL-CIO, representing 13 million American workers, the Transportation Trades Department, the Professional Airway Systems Specialists and the National Association of Air Traffic Specialists.
Mr. Chairman, on February 1, 2005, the FAA awarded a $1.9 billion contract to Lockheed Martin to close 38 out of 61 automated flight service stations across the country and privatize 20 others. This contract is not scheduled to go into effect until October 1, 2005.
If this contract is implemented, over 1,000 highly trained air traffic control specialists will be in danger of losing their jobs, and the retirement benefits of some 2,500 Federal aviation workers will also be in jeopardy.
Mr. Chairman, this privatization scheme is a bad idea, a wrong idea for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the question of air safety, something that is on the mind of every Member of Congress and every American person who flies.
Flight service stations are crucial to the safety and security of our Nation's air space. They provide a host of critical services to more than 600,000 general aviation pilots, as well as providing assistance to military and commercial pilots.
Air traffic control specialists advise pilots on such information as terrain, pre-flight and in-flight weather information, suggested routes of flight, altitudes and indications of turbulence or icing. As a matter of fact, when this country was attacked on September 11, 2001, the key national security function of air traffic control specialists was on full display. During that national tragedy, air traffic control specialists communicated crucial information to planes in the air and on the ground and were responsible for restarting air traffic in the days following. In addition, Mr. Chairman, keeping airplanes out of restricted air space is the responsibility of air traffic control specialists.
Further, air traffic control specialists are critical to protect our airways during a natural disaster. When hurricanes hit the southeast last year, flight service stations remained open, and air traffic control specialists remained working to ensure the safety of airline passengers, even though other FAA facilities were shut down.
Mr. Chairman, it is my very strong opinion that we should not be compromising air safety by privatizing air traffic control specialists to a corporation, Lockheed Martin, whose main function in life is making a profit. When passengers get on a plane, when passengers take off and land at an airport, they want to know that everything possible is being done to protect the safety of those flights and not that operations have been turned out to the lowest possible bidder.
Interestingly enough, Mr. Chairman, Congress has already passed a provision prohibiting three flight service stations in Alaska from being privatized, and that provision has been signed into law by the President. Mr. Chairman, I support that law and believe that what is good for Alaska, a State highly dependent on air travel, should be good for the rest of the country and that we should prevent flight service stations across the country from closing, which is exactly what this amendment will do.
Mr. Chairman, the second important reason that we should pass this amendment is that at a time when millions of American workers are worried that the pensions that have been promised to them will not be there when they retire, we must show that Congress will not be complicit in that process and that we will stand up for them when their pensions are going to be slashed.
Mr. Chairman, if this amendment fails, not only will 1,000 highly trained air traffic control specialists be in danger of losing their jobs, but the retirement benefits of some 2,500 Federal aviation workers, most of whom are over the age of 40, will be in jeopardy. That is wrong.
The Federal Government must set an example to the private sector. When we promise a Federal employee that he or she will get a pension, that promise must be kept. If we do not keep our promises regarding pensions to Federal employees, how can we expect that United Airlines or other major corporations will keep their promises?
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Chairman, the issue here is a simple one: We cannot compromise the air safety of the United States of America to the lowest bidder, whose main function in life is profiteering rather than protecting the needs of American air travelers.
Equally important, we cannot turn our backs on the promises made to 2,500 Federal employees in terms of their pensions. If we turn our backs on them, we are turning our backs on millions of American workers whose pensions can also be slashed. Let us protect Federal employees. Let us pass this amendment.
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