WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; member of the Aviation Operations, Safety and Security Subcommittee; and co-chair of the Senate Aerospace Caucus – today spoke on the Senate floor about Congress’ damaging practice of passing short-term, 11th hour extensions to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) authority.

“Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress have repeatedly found common ground, and consensus among the entire aviation community, on a wide range of issues impacting the FAA, such as strengthening the Contract Tower Program and streamlining aircraft certification processes,” said Sen. Moran. “Yet today we see that controversial proposals to privatize our air traffic control system have derailed our progress yet again. Short-term authorizations like this one fail to give our aviation community the certainty it needs to plan for improvements at our airports that will keep travelers safe or empower manufacturers to create jobs. We must end this dangerous habit.”

“Air traffic control privatization is about everyone except for the largest cities with the largest airports and the most numerous travelers,” continued Sen. Moran. “So this is not about just Garden City, Kansas, or Manhattan, my hometown, or Hays, my former hometown. This is about Wichita, Topeka, it’s about Kansas City – all but the absolute largest airports would be damaged by the privatization of air traffic control. Privatization of the nation’s most complex air system is a solution without a problem that will ultimately create lots of problems.”

Sen. Moran’s floor remarks can be viewed here.

Background

• Kansans have built three out of every four general aviation aircraft since the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, and today, over 40,000 Kansans make a living manufacturing, operating and servicing the world’s highest quality aircraft.
• Last year, Sen. Moran voted in favor of the Senate’s FAA reform proposal and opposed the six-month extension that resulted after disagreement with the House.
• Sen. Moran has been a vocal opponent of proposals to privatize our nation’s air traffic control system, advocating instead in favor of proposals to provide greater protections for the general aviation industry, small airports and all but the largest communities nationwide. 

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