(Washington, D.C.) – Today at hearing of the Senate Transportation, Treasury and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash) urged the Bush Administration to support
her successful amendment to offer assistance to airports and airline industry workers.
Murray’s amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill passed the full
Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday.
Murray serves as Ranking Democrat on the Transportation panel that held today’s hearing.
Senator Murray’s opening remarks at the hearing follow:
Thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for calling this very timely hearing on the
condition of our aviation industry.
Our airlines, our airports and their employees are facing an immediate crisis, and they need
our help. Thousands of hard-working Americans are being put out on the streets every
week by the airlines or their suppliers.
At home, tens of thousands of my constituents have lost their jobs because of the
downturn in air travel. Together these companies and their employees have faced the triple
whammy of September 11th, a deteriorating economy, and now the war with Iraq.
It’s difficult to overstate the seriousness of the crisis facing this vital part of our nation’s
transportation infrastructure. Some carriers are emerging from bankruptcy, others are
entering it, and still others are trying desperately to avoid it. Some retired airline employees
are seeing their monthly pension checks cut dramatically. And one of our nation’s largest
carriers is facing the very real possibility of liquidation. In just a half hour, the Senate will
begin debating the War Supplemental that we marked up in the Appropriations Committee
yesterday.
Yesterday during markup, I offered an amendment to increase the size of the aviation relief
package from $2.8 billion to $3.5 billion. I’m pleased that my amendment was adopted,
and that the full bill passed the committee on a unanimous and bipartisan basis. My
amendment expanded the amount of relief provided to our airlines and addressed two
gaping holes in the original proposal – the absence of assistance for our airports, and the
absence of help for the workers who have suffered most during this crisis.
While our Committee was reporting the War Supplemental with $3.5 billion in overall
aviation relief, the House Appropriations Committee reported its version of the
Supplemental with roughly $3.2 billion in assistance.
The House Committee version, however, did not include any help for workers. The
Administration’s supplemental budget request included absolutely nothing for our airlines,
our airports or our aviation workers. Since then, we have heard from the OMB Director
and others that the Administration would not close the door on some form of aviation
relief. In effect, the Administration has been doing one thing, but saying another.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t been clear what — if anything — the Bush Administration wants to
do address the crisis in our aviation industry.
That was, until today. Today we read that senior Bush Administration officials think that
the packages approved by the House and Senate Committees were too large and
wrong-headed.
Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta is quoted in the New York Times this morning
saying that our Committees’ actions yesterday – quote – “show that a considerable gulf
remains between Congress and the administration regarding the amount and structure of
this assistance.”
Commerce Secretary Don Evans was quoted in an AP story saying – “We will work with
the Congress…to ensure that the airlines receive more reasonable assistance.” Once again,
the Bush Administration is long on rhetoric but short on detail.
Time and again, we hear that the Administration has a position, but they just won’t tell the
Congress or the American people what it is. Workers have lost their jobs. They’re trying
to figure out how to pay the mortgage this month — but instead of offering support –this
Administration is failing them
Mr. Chairman, this morning we’re joined by President Bush’s Under Secretary for
Transportation Policy. I hope we’ll find out what the Bush Administration finds
“unreasonable” in the Committee’s assistance package. I have carefully reviewed the
Under Secretary’s formal testimony, and I didn’t find any answers to these questions. I
found some nice multi-colored charts documenting the problem and a commitment by the
Administration to continue to monitor the situation.
I hope the President does not object to helping thousands of workers who have lost their
jobs through no fault of their own.
Let me put this in context.
At a time when the President has proposed $700 billion more in tax cuts, I would hope he
could find it in his heart to support less than one-twentieth of one percent of that amount
for laid off workers. I would remind the Administration that 10,000 aviation industry
workers have gotten pink slips since the start of the Iraq War. I hope that during our
questions this morning we will finally get clear answers on precisely where the Bush
Administration stands on the Congressional efforts to help this industry and its workers.
Let me close with another area where the Administration can do more and that is carefully
monitoring aviation safety.
Many years ago — during the bankruptcy and liquidation of Eastern Airlines — we learned
that air carriers in difficult financial condition could be tempted to cut corners in the critical
areas of maintenance and safety assurance. It is the job of Administrator Blakey to see to
it that this does not happen, and it is the job of the Inspector General to make sure that
Ms. Blakey is doing her job. So I look forward to asking both of them whether we should
be concerned that the financial downturn in the industry could impact the overall safety of
our aviation system.
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