Federal Aviation Administration Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I thank the chairman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard from the other side of the aisle on all of these bills that attempt to reopen many aspects of the Federal Government. We hear them say, well, I am in favor of that program, but I want to vote against it until they bring the entire government funding bill before us.

I would love to do that. I would love to bring the entire budget here. In fact, we did, and we can't get the Senate to act on it. But in the meantime, the other side is saying, I will vote against this because I want to save and vote for the entire Federal Government.

That may work in some of the agencies, but this is safety. This is the safety of people flying the skies of this country and the world. You don't want to delay safety until you can vote on a bigger bill. I think it is irresponsible not to support the safety of our people in the skies.

This bill provides funding to resume operations within FAA that are critical to the safety of our skies and our aircraft fleet. It would bring back 7,000 aviation safety inspectors currently not working, restart aircraft certification activities, resume training for air traffic controllers, reopen the aircraft registry service, and continue air traffic control modernization.

Mr. Speaker, you don't want to mess around with the safety of our people. This bill cures that problem. I can't imagine anyone wanting to oppose this bill.

The sum total of these efforts will help guarantee safe, efficient, and reliable air travel for the American public.

This funding is provided at an annual rate of $12 billion and will last until December 15, or until the Congress enacts and the President signs full-year appropriations bills.

The language in this bill is yet again nearly identical to what was included in the CR I offered back in September--nearly a month ago.

Once again, we are calling on the Senate to consider and pass this bill. Our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol continue to call for a clean CR; yet they continue to act on these ``clean'' mini-CRs.

The House has put forward a plethora of options to fund the Federal Government: first, the four annual appropriations bills to fund the government in regular order; then three different continuing resolutions prior to September 30; and now the short-term CRs to reopen parts of the Federal Government--in fact, more than a third of it so far.

But the Senate is committed to inaction. They didn't pass any regular appropriations bills; they will not pass our clean, short-term funding bills; and they so far have refused to join us at the negotiating table.

Mr. Speaker, that completely puzzles me. It goes against the grain of what has gone on in this country since we have been a country. When the two bodies differ, the Founding Fathers said, if you can't agree, appoint conference members from either body--both bodies--and let them go out and recommend a solution to the problem. It has always worked, except now the Senate refuses to do their duty.

I hope they will consider this bill as a steppingstone toward ending the shutdown. We need to come together in a productive way with open ears and open minds to find a way to clean up this mess.

I urge my colleagues to preserve the safety of American skies. Vote for this bill.

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