Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, amid complaints from the White House about the FAA furloughs, we need to keep at least one thing in mind: The sequester was President Obama's idea in the first place. His administration created it; he signed it into law on August 2, 2011; and he knew the date it would go into effect. And yet, as the deadline approached, earlier this year the President and his administration traveled the country to stir up anxiety, concern, and fear over the imposition of the sequester, warning that the sky would fall like a modern-day Chicken Little.

It has been almost 2 months since the sequester took effect, and the administration's claims that the sky would fall have each proven to be false.

First, we had the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan claiming the school teachers were already getting pink slips. But that wasn't true.

Then President Obama declared that U.S. Capitol janitors were getting a pay cut. But on further examination, that proved not to be true.

Customs and Border Protection initially told their employees--including border agents--that they might be furloughed. However, a month into the sequester, Customs and Border Protection walked back that claim and decided to make better use of departmental resources.

The Director of the National Park Service said the sequester might lead to cancellation of Washington, DC's cherry blossom festival. But as all the visitors who flocked to DC can tell you, the festival went on as planned, and Washington's Metro reported one of its highest ridership days in its history.

With all of these bogus claims, it seems the administration is desperate to prove it wasn't crying wolf after all.

For example, we are learning that the Federal Aviation Administration is now deliberately engineering flight delays--deliberately engineering flight delays, just as families gear up for their summer travel. It is a bizarre, almost surreal experience. All across America, businesses work hard to take care of their customers because they know their livelihood depends on their ability to satisfy their customers' needs. But when it comes to the administration and the Federal Government, the FAA and this White House are deliberately trying to make it harder on their customers--the people who use the airways and fly airplanes.

Last week the head of the FAA acknowledged that, like other government institutions, his agency has the discretion to fund high-priority projects--over low-priority projects not a particularly remarkable statement in and of itself. But we know now that instead of using that discretion, the FAA has announced it plans to furlough employees for the remainder of the budgetary year, potentially leading to flight delays all across this country.

The FAA's Director claims he has used all the flexibility allowed to him under the law--even though his agency spends $541 million on consultants, $179 million on travel, and $134 million on office supplies.

By comparison, the sequester cuts the FAA budget by $637 million--less than 4 percent of the agency's 2012 budget. I don't know any business in America that can't manage a 4-percent cut in their income. But the FAA apparently can't, without disrupting the air-traveling public, inconveniencing them, and even creating a hardship which is completely unnecessary.

We have already seen the FAA exercise discretion to one small extent, and that is by delaying the closure of air traffic control towers until June 15, after announcing as many as three previous final dates for implementation.

Much like the proposed tower closures, this recent round of furloughs is being driven not by the necessity of budget cuts but by political calculations and sheer incompetence, along with the administration's desire to apparently maximize the pain on American taxpayers because of their refusal to take our fiscal health seriously. It boggles the mind.

We have offered legislation that would give the President and this administration the necessary flexibility to administer the cuts imposed by the sequester--which the President, again, knew was coming since he signed it into law on August 2, 2011. But our friends across the aisle blocked that legislation, which would give the FAA and the executive branch discretion, and the President's administration sent out a statement of administration policy saying that if we passed it, he would veto it.

This morning I joined with Senator Hoeven, our colleague from North Dakota, to cosponsor bipartisan legislation that would direct the FAA to eliminate the flight delays it has imposed on air travelers. In order to meet this directive, the bill would give the Secretary of Transportation the additional authority to transfer funds within the Department's existing budget. This legislation represents just one of the many proposals that are designed to ensure that the sequester is not used as an excuse to endanger public safety and security, or inconvenience or create hardships for the air-traveling public.

Unfortunately, between the cancellation of the White House tours and now the FAA furloughs, the administration has repeatedly shown it is more interested in finding ways to inconvenience the American people than it is in looking for real solutions to our fiscal problems.

The American people, it would seem obvious, deserve more and better from their government. I urge the FAA, No. 1, to take another look at its budget, take a look at those piles of money that might be available to move around to help avoid the furloughs and avoid the inconvenience and disruption to the public or, 2, to use the flexibility that we would be glad to give the FAA, if it needs additional authority, to make commonsense decisions.

We don't need another round of scare tactics. We need a serious conversation about our country's priorities, and a budget that reflects them.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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