E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 115 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 163 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 No. 154 House of Representatives The House met at 10 a.m. and was Now, why are we here? If that is true, then the airlines are called to order by the Speaker pro tem- We are here because the chairman of costing American consumers $11.5 bil- pore (Mr. BRAT). the committee insists that we must lion a year because they themselves f privatize the air traffic control of the won’t clean up their acts. United States, the largest, most com- Again, they go on about ATO. How DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO plex, safest, most advanced system in many times have their dispatch and TEMPORE the world, to make it even better. Un- reservation systems crashed in the last The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- fortunately, he does not enjoy support 5 years? fore the House the following commu- adequate to get this bill through. He Dozens of times, stranding millions nication from the Speaker: delayed the bill in the last Congress be- of people. WASHINGTON, DC, cause he didn’t have the votes, and the How many times has the entire ATC September 26, 2017. bill has been delayed multiple times in in the United States of America gone I hereby appoint the Honorable DAVE BRAT this Congress. It has bipartisan opposi- down? to act as Speaker pro tempore on this day. tion, and the Senate isn’t even think- PAUL D. RYAN, Zero. Zero times. Speaker of the House of Representatives. ing about this. So we should let them run it? They Now, why are we here? f will run it better, just like their com- Well, the airlines have this fake puter reservation and their dispatch MORNING-HOUR DEBATE group they call the Citizens for On systems? Time Flights. And they say we have to The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- Come on. There is really just a very fly old zigzag patterns across the ant to the order of the House of Janu- simple agenda here. We finance the United States with World War II radar. ary 3, 2017, the Chair will now recog- current Air Traffic Organization with a Well, that would be really bad if it nize Members from lists submitted by 7.5 percent tax on every ticket—a pro- were true. However, it is a lie. the majority and minority leaders for gressive tax. The more expensive your In fact, we have direct routes, per- morning-hour debate. ticket, the more you pay. That pays for formance-based navigation. Actually, The Chair will alternate recognition about 75 percent of the system today. the government has built and deployed between the parties. All time shall be The bill that the chairman wants to equally allocated between the parties, a functional system where we can fly every plane in America by GPS. But push will repeal the ticket tax. Airlines and in no event shall debate continue will raise prices 7.5 percent. So every- beyond 11:50 a.m. Each Member, other the airlines haven’t wanted to make the investment in their planes. So, ac- body will still pay the same amount for than the majority and minority leaders their tickets. and the minority whip, shall be limited tually, they are making a case against How do I know that? to 5 minutes. themselves. Because this tax temporarily lapsed 5 f Why aren’t we using the system more efficiently? years ago and every airline in America, DON’T PRIVATIZE AIR TRAFFIC Because they have failed to purchase except for Spirit and Alaska, imme- CONTROL the equipment to fly planes closer to- diately raised ticket prices 7.5 percent. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gether. If every plane doesn’t have So then how are we going to pay for Chair recognizes the gentleman from GPS, we can’t fly them closer together the system? Oregon (Mr. DEFAZIO) for 5 minutes. because the air traffic controllers Well, actually, they are going to im- Mr. DEFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, yester- won’t know exactly where they are. pose a new head tax. That is right. You day, a temporary extension of the abso- Now, they say: Well, if we get to run get on the plane and you will pay a new lutely crucial Federal Aviation Admin- the system, it will be more efficient. It head tax to use the airspace of the istration—which runs our air traffic is ATC that is the problem. United States of America. control system in the United States of Well, here is June: In June, actually, Now, that, of course, is a flat fee. So America; the largest, most complex, airline operations, overscheduling, if you have a $100 ticket, 25 percent and safest system in the world—failed. crew dispatch, mechanicals, the host of tax, $25 to sit in that seat. If you have It actually will expire on October 1. things that they have, caused 46 per- a $3,000 ticket, well, you are going to That means that the source of funding cent of the delays. pay a tiny fraction. It won’t bother you for air traffic goes away and air traffic And then they go on to say: Well, very much at all. So we are going to go controllers may be working without this is horrible, these delays. It costs from a fair, progressive tax that fi- salaries. Americans $20 billion a year. nances the system to a flat head tax. b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H7489 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:54 Sep 26, 2017 Jkt 069060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A26SE7.000 H26SEPT1 H7490 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE September 26, 2017 The airlines get a $10 billion windfall. In Pennsylvania, MIECHV’s funds still at it. Instead of attacking our Na- And guess what. Your elected Rep- support four evidence-based home vis- tion’s problems, he is attacking us. resentative will have nothing to say iting models. These include Early Head Let’s take a quick look at some of about it. The people on the Ways and Start, Healthy Families America, the people and groups he has attacked Means Committee, the Republicans Nurse-Family Partnership, and Parents both as a candidate and President. On here, have decided that the airlines as Teachers. MIECHV funding plays a this board we have just a handful of the will have a vote on the new user fee. critical role in helping increase the people, places, and things President Yes, they will. They have a designated availability of these services to more Trump has insulted, and if we were seat on the board of the new private and more families across the Common- going to list them all, we would prob- corporation, so they will vote on the wealth of Pennsylvania. ably have to have dozens of poster user fee. Your elected Representative Scientific research has supported boards. does not have a vote, does not have re- claims that these services positively Here is a sampling: JOHN MCCAIN and view capability. It is entirely removed impact health, education, and employ- JEFF FLAKE; Barack Obama; Hillary from the jurisdiction of the United ment outcomes for children while re- Clinton, even though the election hap- States Congress. This is absolutely ducing criminal justice costs, instances pened a year ago; the media from The outrageous. of child abuse, and independence on ‘‘failing’’ New York Times and the I mean, a campaign based on lies. We public assistance. Amazon Washington Post to individual have a report from the Government Ac- These services can also play a key reporters like Katy Tur and Mika countability Office saying, in fact, if role in helping to support infants and Brzezinski; ObamaCare; Hamilton, the we privatize, it will delay things in mothers struggling with addiction. Broadway musical; Jeff Sessions, his terms of implementing the new system Pennsylvania has a long history of evi- own Attorney General; the Emmys; and make it more expensive. dence-based home visiting programs Nordstrom; the Russian investigation; I happen to have the draft report. It because they are a proven way to Rosie O’Donnell; the Paris climate was censored by political people in the strengthen families and improve the agreement; Meryl Streep; Mexicans; Bush administration. So the final re- lives of children. protesters; fake news; John Oliver; port just kind of waters down those For these reasons, I look forward to Mark Cuban; Snoop Dogg; and this conclusions. But they are still in there, supporting H.R. 2824, the Increasing weekend, the NFL and its players. and I am happy to make the draft re- Opportunity and Success for Children The list goes on and on. Well, it is ac- port available to anybody who wants to and Parents through Evidence-Based tually easier to name the people and know honestly what is going on around Home Visiting Act, when it comes to things that President Trump has not attacked than all of the ones that he here. This place is not straight up. the House floor this afternoon. f Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to has. So I came up with a very small list of people or groups that he has not at- do the same.