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“FAA SHOULD BE AN INDEPENDENT AGENCY” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E769 on April 4, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FAA SHOULD BE AN INDEPENDENT AGENCY
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HON. JIM LIGHTFOOT
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, April 4, 1995
Mr. LIGHTFOOT. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation to restore the Federal Aviation Administration to independent agency status. The legislation will also provide the FAA with the major personnel, procurement, and finance reforms needed to keep America's air traffic control system the best in the world.
Although our national air transportation system is the best in the world--it should be better. As a pilot and flight instructor, I've seen a lot of problems with the FAA bureaucracy. And I've heard from far too many people who've had first-hand experience with the mismanagement and inefficiencies at the FAA. These are exemplified by the advanced automation system, which is the core of the airspace modernization effort--a project bungled so badly that it is billions over budget an years behind schedule.
We're clearly not doing our best to ensure that ours is the safest and most efficient system possible. We've reached a point in the development of our aviation system where we can no longer postpone action. It is clear that everyone, the administration, Congress, and the aviation user groups agree on the need for reform at the FAA.
At the appropriations committee, we heard Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena testify that the Clinton administration's proposal for a Government-owned ATC Corporation is the only solution to the problems that exist at the FAA. Yet there is near-universal agreement that the administration's proposal is no solution at all. The General Accounting Office's analysis of the administration's proposal strongly suggests the proposal has been rigged with financial assumptions to make the concept superficially attractive.
While I recommend the administration for taking a proactive role in FAA reform, the plans has earned almost no support from the industry or from Congress. But there has been one positive outcome to the discussions about privatizing the nation's ATC system. It has helped focus the debate, allowing several common complaints about the FAA to emerge.
My legislation seeks to address those key obstacles which nearly everyone agrees are hampering our efforts to keep pace with technology and the growth of the aviation industry.
For example, the DOT structure hinders the FAA from doing its job in the most effective manner. By reestablishing an independent FAA, we eliminate the many layers of review by Department of Transportation political appointees and their staffs. While no former FAA Administrator supports the ATC Corporation proposal, restoring FAA to independent status is supported by 10 of the 11 living former FAA Administrators.
My bill provides an independent FAA with the personnel and procurement reforms needed to ensure the safety of the users of our increasingly complex and busy aviation system. It establishes two pilot programs; one to exempt the FAA from procurement regulations which hamper its ability to acquire the cutting edge technology it needs, and another to exempt FAA from most civil service rules except those relating to employee benefits.
The bill creates a select panel to review and report to Congress on innovative funding mechanisms, such as loan guarantees and restructured grant programs, to ensure that the money is there for future improvements of the Nation's aviation infrastructure.
My bill will establish a management advisory board made up of high-
level industry representatives to advise the Administrator on management, policy, spending, and regulatory matters. And it will mandate that final action must be taken on all FAA rulemakings within 18 months after the date of their initiation.
I'm offering my bill as a starting point for developing consensus towards a meaningful and realistic reform effort. I hope you will join me as I continue to work with the leaders of the aviation community--
the airlines, general aviation, FAA employees--to shape these ideas into the kind of package all of us can support.
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