The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“INDEPENDENT STATUS FOR THE FAA” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S13707-S13708 on Sept. 18, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INDEPENDENT STATUS FOR THE FAA
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, last month I introduced a bill that would give the FAA independent status. As a matter of fact, when I introduced it, I read a speech as if I were giving it. It was really a speech that was given 20 years ago by Barry Goldwater, and Barry Goldwater's speech was a lengthy one, one that outlined the problems in 1975 that had occurred since the FAA had gone under the Department of Transportation back in 1967. He talked about the procurement problems and the personnel problems that are very unique to the FAA.
Oddly enough, it was 20 years ago that Barry Goldwater made that speech, and I talked to him the other day and he said, ``I hope we will be able to do it now.''
I am talking about a life-and-death issue as a commercial pilot, I guess the last active commercial pilot in Congress. I have experienced having our lives in the hands of those controllers down there, and it is very significant that we do give them the independent status that Barry Goldwater was seeking back in 1975.
I really believe if we could do that, we could effect enough savings to actually prevent having to raise fees and having to raise taxes as is being considered right now in another bill, and as also is being suggested by the President.
On August 9, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee made a statement in the Chamber, and he said, ``The FAA tells us if they could have this kind of operational flexibility''--now we are talking about independent status, free from the bureaucracy of the DOT, free from the procurement guidelines and the personnel guidelines--``they believe they could cut as much as 20 percent out of the procurement budget'' from what they are spending today.
Now, this is significant because that happens to be approximately the amount that historically has been contributed to the FAA for operations from the general revenues. And I suggest to you that my bill does not give the FAA the power to increase fees indiscriminately. I suggest, if we do that such as is suggested in the McCain bill, instead of streamlining their bureaucracy, they would merely raise fees.
I will read from the McCain bill the portion I am talking about. It says, ``to establish a program of incentive-based fees for services to improve the air traffic management system performance and to establish appropriate levels of cost accountability for air traffic management services provided by the FAA.''
So, Mr. President, I have a lot of respect for Mr. Hinson, David Hinson, who is the Administrator of the FAA. I think he is one of the few real good appointments that this President has made. And I think that if anyone could streamline his bureaucracy, it would be David Hinson. But I suggest to you that the words that I recall that Ronald Reagan made way back in 1965 when he said, ``There is nothing closer to immortality on the face of this Earth than a Government program once devised,'' that is exactly what we are faced with now. A bureaucracy never, as long as it has the ability to raise funds, is going to streamline their operation.
So I hope that we will be able to consider my bill very seriously. And I suggest there are about several million pilots out there that are concerned about this also. I think it would be very difficult to go out right now and tell the pilots, who are paying an average of about
$2,320 in various costs each year--for a small four-passenger airplane in addition to that, they are paying the gas tax--to go out and tell these pilots that in 1990 we raised your gas tax and we raised it again in 1993, and now we are going to start raising your fees.
So, Mr. President, this can be done without increasing fees and taxes. My bill will do that. I am going to be urging the passage of this legislation.
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