Disaster Tax Relief and Airport Airway Extension Act of 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3823, the Disaster Tax Relief and Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2017, which provides additional time to debate the future of our Nation's air traffic control system.

Earlier this week, I visited Charlotte Douglas' air traffic control tower and learned firsthand from the controllers about the importance of modernizing our traffic control system. Fortunately, Chairman Bill Shuster exercised leadership through spearheading H.R. 2997, the 21st Century AIRR Act, that does just that, by shifting the current bureaucratic and broken air traffic control to a stakeholder-managed, not-for-profit corporation. With NextGen projected to ultimately cost $120 billion, it is imperative that we fix our air traffic control in this Congress.

Importantly, the 21st Century AIRR Act also strengthens air service in rural communities through ensuring that general aviation will have full access to U.S. airspace. It advances the remote air traffic control tower program, which means that rural communities are fully integrated into our Nation's air traffic control system.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with my colleagues on this critical issue facing the Fifth District of South Carolina.

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