Faa Reauthorization Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I claim time in opposition to the amendment offered by the gentleman from Nebraska.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I support the amendment offered by the gentleman from Nebraska.

This amendment would require the Comptroller General to conduct a study on the current and future supply of individuals for the U.S. aviation workforce. The study would review the current state of our aviation workforce as well as barriers to entry.

A strong and robust aviation workforce will ensure the U.S. remains the global leader and innovator in civil aviation; therefore, I support this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I claim time in opposition.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to oppose the amendment offered by the gentleman from Minnesota.

Mr. Chairman, I understand the concerns that he has with his local MPO. We all face our own challenges with local MPOs, but they are an important decisionmaking body that ensures local governments can take full advantage of Federal transportation programs in a coordinated manner.

This amendment is attempting to break apart the operating structure of a local MPO, seemingly to punish it. It does not achieve the outcome the gentleman is hoping to achieve except to create government dysfunction.

I would also note that some frequently argue that local decisions should be made by local decisionmakers. They say, ``Keep the Federal Government out of our business,'' except this amendment declares, if the decisions are not made to the liking of one Federal official, he can step in and blow up that local decisionmaking body.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chair, we have no other speakers, and I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois. There is no doubt that time and time again, the airlines have a lot of work to do in the realm of customer service. With little competition in the U.S. airline industry, airlines are no longer required to compete on the quality of services they provide to consumers, yet, the industry has become the world's most profitable due in large part to countless ancillary fees they charge passengers.

I believe certainly that more must be done to restore basic rights and fairness in air travel. However, the amendment, as drafted, does take a one-size-fits-all approach to customer service that may not be appropriate for every situation.

Before legislating prescriptive requirements for the airlines when passengers are displaced, I think the committee should hold additional hearings and study these issues more thoroughly. I hope we can agree on that.

A recent lesson learned was with the Department of Transportation tarmac delay rule, a rule with great intentions that had several unintended consequences, such as passengers becoming stranded overnight at diversion airports hundreds of miles from their destination. Congress had to mitigate some of these issues in the 2016 FAA extension.

When we are proscriptive on the customer service front, we have to be sure we are getting it right. But I do want to thank Mr. Lipinski for offering this amendment. I hope he will continue to work with the committee to perfect it, but I stand in opposition to it.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition, but I do support the amendment.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico.

This amendment requires the U.S. Government Accountability Office, or the GAO, study air cargo traffic in the Caribbean, including an assessment and data collection. This data and assessment are needed to help assess Puerto Rico's role as a cargo hub for international traffic. I look forward to seeing what the GAO reports.

Therefore, I support this amendment, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Chairman, this bill will provide data that is important for the due recognition in terms of the capabilities of the island for the near future, and I hope this bill will pass and give Puerto Rico the opportunities we need to fulfill the opportunities in the region and the States.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition, even though I support the amendment.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I support the amendment being offered by the gentlewoman from Virginia.

This amendment would create within the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Office an office of spaceports, a centralized policy office that will support and promote infrastructure improvements at FAA-licensed spaceports.

This amendment also requires a report to Congress evaluating the Federal Government's national security and civil space launch demands, and offers recommendations on how we can further support and promote greater investment in commercial space infrastructure. It also requires the Comptroller General to study spaceport activities in the U.S.

Commercial space transportation and enabled industries includes satellite and ground equipment manufacturing, satellite services and remote sensing, and distribution industries. In 2015, the size of the global space industry was estimated to be $335 billion; the size of the U.S. space industry was approximately $126 billion, which includes $89 billion in revenues generated by satellite services, manufacturing, ground equipment, and launch services.

The commercial launch of satellites is particularly important as these technologies offer us a range of services from television and radio broadcasts to high-speed internet and weather forecasting.

This amendment will strengthen the Nation's competitiveness in this nascent industry and offer us a better understanding of how we can maintain a robust and resilient network of space transportation infrastructure.

Mr. Chairman, with that, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the amendment offered by the gentleman from Massachusetts.

It would direct the FAA to engage and cooperate with airlines to identify and facilitate opportunities for them to retrofit their aircraft with devices that mitigate noise. Air traffic noise is an extremely important issue to those who live in communities surrounding our airports. This noise can be destructive to the well-being of the residents of these communities. This amendment would go a long way toward mitigating future noise issues around our airports.

I support this amendment and ask my colleagues to do the same.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment offered by the gentleman from New York.

This amendment directs the FAA Administrator to offer a public comment period and public hearing with respect to the New York North Shore Helicopter Route and would then be required to review the applicable regulations related to the route and assess the noise impacts on communities and the availability of alternative or supplemental routes to reduce those impacts.

I oppose it on the grounds that it is really not good policy to legislate on noise in a piecemeal fashion, addressing each region and each airport one by one. That is not the best way to address air traffic noise. The community has been aware of this issue for some time and certainly of the occasionally unreasonable exposure to helicopter noise reported by residents in urban areas.

The Aviation Subcommittee held a roundtable on this in October of 2011 to explore this issue, and perhaps it is time to re-up that roundtable to get some movement on this issue.

Further, I have concern about possible unintended consequences of legislative proposals that could lead to the redistribution of aircraft noise. Although well-intentioned, such proposals have social justice ramifications and often can end up distributing noise over socially economically disadvantaged communities. We have to make sure that noise is distributed equitably if we are going to make these decisions.

I would be happy to work, and I think on our side we would be happy to work with the gentleman and the cosponsors to try to address these concerns by talking directly with the FAA, but I have to oppose taking the solution towards a legislative resolution.

I ask my colleagues to oppose it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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