Vision 100-Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act-Conference Report

VISION 100-CENTURY OF AVIATION REAUTHORIZATION ACT-CONFERENCE REPORT

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise in strong support of the Vision 100-Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act. This bill authorizes critical aviation infrastructure and operations spending for the fiscal years 2004 through 2007. The bill also makes important legislative adjustments for our aviation security program at the Transportation Security Administration.

I represent a State with tens of thousands of aviation workers. I appreciate fully the essential contribution that our Nation's aviation industry makes to our national economic prosperity. As the former chairman and now ranking member of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, I spend a considerable amount of my time seeing to it that the needs of our national aviation enterprise are adequately funded.

As my colleagues are aware, consideration of this FAA authorization bill has been delayed for an extraordinary period of time over the issues surrounding the Bush administration's stated desire to privatize certain aspects of our Nation's air traffic control system.

At one time, this legislation included language that specifically authorized the FAA Administrator to privatize the controller workforce at scores of air traffic control towers, including the air traffic control tower at Boeing Field in Seattle. Senators who are not familiar with the geography of the greater Seattle area may not be aware that Boeing Field sits right between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and downtown Seattle. It is extraordinarily close to our port, our central business district, our major sporting venues-Safeco Field and the Seahawks Stadium. It is also a major installation for the Boeing Company and a busy general aviation airport.

In the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, I cannot support a proposal to contract out the air traffic control function to the lowest bidder in the heart of this critically important corridor.

Immediately after September 11, this Congress passed legislation to take the air passenger screening function out of the hands of private bidders and place it in the hands of a federalized screening force. For the life of me, I do not understand why the Bush administration wants to take the exact opposite approach when it comes to the highly skilled personnel that actually control the movement of our aircraft.

The administration has also cited an interest in privatizing other aspects of our Nation's national air traffic control enterprise, including the employees at our Nation's flight service stations and the technicians that maintain our Nation's air traffic control equipment.

These privatization ideas have not been adequately explained or adequately justified to the Congress or to the public. It has not been determined that such contracting out activities would actually improve upon the exemplary safety record that we currently enjoy with our air traffic control system. I, along with many of my colleagues, have deep-seated doubts about the safety ramifications, the security ramifications and whether there will be any real financial benefit to the taxpayer as a result of such a privatization scheme. It was for these reasons that I and 42 of my Senate colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, were required to vote against bringing debate on this bill to a close on November 17, and why I joined 55 of my colleagues in support of a measure to explicitly exclude privatization of our air traffic control towers during the initial debate on the Senate bill. At that time, we did not have what I considered to be adequate assurances from the FAA that they would not be launching into these privatization schemes in the very near future.

I am pleased that we have now overcome this hurdle and the administration has given us assurances that they will not engage in any competition studies or outsourcing activities for air traffic controllers or for maintenance and technician personnel during fiscal year 2004. This will give the Congress some time to review the administration's plans in detail, which I intend to do during next year's appropriations' hearings process. Also, with the written assurance now in hand that no outsourcing activities related to our air traffic control system will take place in 2004, we can, if need be, work on putting sufficient safeguards in the 2005 Transportation Appropriations Act if we feel that the administration is heading in the wrong direction when it comes to protecting safety and security.

It is for these reasons that I am relieved by the administration's new letter on this topic which I understand has already been put into the RECORD. I am glad that we have overcome this hurdle.

This bill will provide investments in critical infrastructure and operations at our Nation's airports. Furthermore, it will allocate needed funding to continue our efforts to improve the security of aviation system.

For these reasons, I support this important conference report today.