Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
February 13, 2008

SENATOR HUTCHISON DISCUSSES THE AIRPORT AND AIRWAY EXTENSION ACT OF 2008


MRS. HUTCHISON. Madam President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to vote for a short-term extension of FAA collection, expenditure authority, and Airport Improvement Program, or AIP, contract authority through June 30, 2008.

The previous extension was scheduled to expire on February 29, 2008. Short of congressional action, hundreds of airports across the Nation were at risk of losing an entire construction season and hindering much needed improvements to our aviation system. In addition, the FAA was at risk of not being able to fund this year's planned critical investments in the Next Generation Air Traffic Control System, NEXTGEN. Now, because of our efforts, those improvements can continue as planned.

While I am pleased with our work today, I am disappointed we could not provide more stability in the system by completing a longer term extension through September 30, 2008, which is the end of the fiscal year.

As legislators, it is our responsibility to create stability and predictability in our infrastructure system. We cannot allow our lack of action to disturb the modernization efforts and the flow of funds to our aviation system.

Thankfully, the extension we passed today will provide immediate funding and spending authority as well as a valuable cushion for the Senate to work on the overarching FAA reauthorization bill.

I am looking forward to working with my friend and distinguished colleague Senator Jay Rockefeller to complete a multi-year FAA reauthorization bill. We have several challenges ahead of us, and we will attempt to come together in a bipartisan way to meet those challenges. The extension we passed today is just the first step in what will be a very important year for aviation policy.


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