the presiding officer: the senior senator from south dakota. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i urge my colleagues today to support the motion to end debate so that the

senate can vote and pass the pro-security and pro-consumer provisions within the bipartisan federal aviation administration reauthorization act of 2016. for the past two weeks on the senate floor and earlier at the commerce committee, we have engaged in a constructive and open process to consider amendments making important changes to this legislation that sets aviation policies for our country. on the senate floor, we added 19 amendments, ten from democrats and nine from republican senators, and at the commerce committee we approved 57 amendments, 34 from democrats and 23 from republicans. a number of these amendments were substantial, including the vast majority of the aviation security provisions within the legislation. we've also agreed to set aside discussions on certain issues for now so that we could continue to have a bill with broad bipartisan support. on some policy issues where there was disagreement, we found the will of the senate through

negotiation and votes. our debate has been constructive, and i value the process by which we've allowed senators to make their mark on this bill. after two weeks of consideration, it's now time to conclude our work on the bipartisan legislation that i introduced along with my friend, the ranking member from florida, senator bill nelson and our aviation subcommittee leaders senators kelly ayotte and maria cantwell. the bill that we can vote on today has been described in "the washington post," and i quote, as one of the most passenger-friendly f.a.a. reauthorization bills in a generation -- end quote. even more importantly, this bill includes strong new security measures that address the threat that isis and other terrorist groups pose to airline passengers. as a comprehensive bill addressing needs in cybersecurity, the aircraft design approval process, undue

regulatory burdens on noncommercial pilots, airport infrastructure, rural air service, lithium battery safety, mental health screening for pilots, communicable disease preparedness, drone safety and many other important issues. this bill helps the economic who relies on our air transportation system, and, mr. president, we shouldn't let them down. a vote yes on the motion to end debate allows us to move forward and to get these reforms going forward by agreeing to ultimately vote on them, to vote on passage of this bill. again, i want to thank all who are involved in this. senator nelson and i started this process months ago. i think we had somewhere on the order of seven hearings, full committee or subcommittee in debating and helping shape the bill and a very constructive process as we went through the markup where we incorporated the suggestions and good ideas that came from many members of our committee, and we tried to continue that process here on

the floor of the united states senate, and we have been successful in adding some amendments that i think strengthen the bill. i wish we could add more and i hope we can still reach agreement, there are still negotiations under way for another package of 25 or 30 amendments that we would like to get added to this bill if we can get the level of cooperation that's necessary to accomplish that. but in the end, we need to pass this. it's important for the american people. it's a piece of legislation that needs to get voted here in the senate, hopefully on to the house and eventually the president's desk. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: mr. president, i want to thank the senator from south dakota. he has been a real friend and a champ in being able to work together in the best traditions of the senate in trying to craft and i think successfully we have a bipartisan piece of

legislation that continues as the senator has quoted from one of the papers that advances the f.a.a. in a way that we should be sensitive to the needs of the flying public. it is also this senator's hope that where we have disagreements on just a few amendments, that after we have a big vote invoking cloture so that we can move on with the bill, that a package of 30-some amendments, noncontroversial, bipartisan, would then be allowed to be passed by unanimous consent, and it's possible that we could move on to the final passage early this afternoon. that is this senator's hope. let me just underscore what the

senator has already said. there are a lot of challenges in how we conduct ourselves in the airspace of this country. there are a lot of important things that we have to do, such as modernizing the air traffic control system, the next generation of technology in moving us efficiently, and in the process it's got to be safe. and therefore as we see new kinds of challenges because of technology, for example, unmanned aerial vehicles, drones, we have to approach that with great caution and make sure we know what we are doing so the flying public can safe. so i hope we get a big vote on this motion for cloture, mr. president, and i yield the

floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on amendment number 7639 signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the motion is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on amendment number 3679 offered by the senator from kentucky, mr. mcconnell, to h.r. 636, shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.

the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote. if not the yeas are -- yayers 94. three-fifths having voted in the firmt tif, the motion is agreed to. -- affirmative, the motion is agreed to. a senator: i suggest the absence of a quorum. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the

senator from new hampshire. a senator: thank you, mr. president. america was horrified two years ago as the scandal at the v.a. unfolded. hearing about veterans dying while they were waiting for care. ms. ayotte: meanwhile, v.a. employees we found manipulated appointment wait lists to hide the fact that the v.a. couldn't get the care to our veterans that they needed in a timely fashion. the denial of earned care is always tragic, but it's inexcusable when the denial is driven by bureaucratic tampering and false indications. cook -- falsifications. cook be the books was one bureaucratic offense but not holding accountable those responsible is an additional bureaucratic failure and one that continues to haunt our system. these weren't just a few

scattered incidents either. the v.a. inspector general investigated 73 v.a. facilities across the country, and found problems in 51 of them ranging from rule violations to outright fraud. these reports demonstrate that inappropriate scheduling practices were systematic at the v.a. here is a map to show how widespread the wait list rule violations or manipulations have been and what the inspector general's office found in terms of how our veterans were treat treated, and how the information when they called up, looking for care, how the information they gave was manipulated to make it seem that the v.a. was doing much better than it was. and we know literally veterans died waiting for care. shameful and we owe it to those who have served this nation. to serve them they earn this defending us and our freedoms.

unfortunately one of those 51 cases was the v.a. medical center in my home state of new hampshire. and new hampshire nups summarizes the -- nups in-- summarizes the report as follows. staff at the v.a. medical center manipulated appointment dates and refused to schedule referrals beyond 14 days in some specialty departments. all the medicare patients were seen quickly even if they weren't. one report also shows that top officials at the manchester v.a. discowrnled the use -- discouraged the use of electronic waiting lists. another shows extremely long waits at the facility's pain clinic where one patient waited an average of seven to eight months for injection treatments. the report shows a mere obsession with keeping numbers down when it comes to the length of time veterans had to wait for appointments which is one of the way by the way that bonuses for hospital officials were determined. bonuses were determined on how you performed on the scheduling and showing that you were

actually meeting the needs of our veterans on time. and yet we know that they were manipulating wait lists across the country to show that they were in fact serving our veterans when they were not and manipulating these wait lists. last week i met with the current manchester v.a. medical center director to discuss the findings of the inspector general report, and even though it didn't occur under her leadership, these findings are serious and must be dealt with appropriately. while i was encouraged to hear of the steps the director has taken to address the scheduling misconduct, i will be closely following the medical center's practices and performance and we cannot let this happen again. part of not letting it happen again is what brings me to the floor today. it's making sure that we aren't incentivizing misconduct and allowing wrong doars to get away -- wrongdoers to get away with it. whether it's the wait list manipulations or other

misconduct. unfortunately the wait list scandal isn't the only recent scandal at the v.a. and a common theme in all these scandals is that those committing misconduct are getting bonuses. yes, bonuses. that's right. those involved in wrongdoing getting checks paid by the american taxpayer. that is unacceptable and that is why i introduced bipartisan legislation to improve accountability at the department of veterans affairs by requiring the v.a. secretary to claw back bonuses paid to v.a. employees who were involved in serious misconduct or felonies. it would also require the v.a. to retain a copy of any reprimand or add monishment received by an employee of the department in the permanent record of the employee. you would think that would be common sense, right? to keep that in someone's employment record. but we actually have to pass this bill to do that. amazingly the secretary of the v.a. doesn't currently have the authority to claw back bonuses,

even if as with the wait lists, the perpetrator's misconduct led to a bigger bonus check. this is unacceptable. we cannot reward those who commit fraud and misconduct by dolling out taxpayer dollars. a recent report noted that in 200014, the v.a. -- 2014, the v.a. paid out $140 million in bonuses, nearly half of the v.a. employees got bonuses. but most importantly, what we know is that individuals implicated in a an array of scandals got bow thuses. for example, the director of the phoenix v.a. hospital who was fired for her muss conduct into the a goods 9,000 bonus. fired, $9,000 bonus. the v.a. senior managers who improperly leveraged their positions to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in new relocation funds to move facilities along with a bump in pay even though they were committing misrepresentations and fraud got bonuses. a v.a. employee who recently

pled the fifth amendment, a bonus. executives overseeing the $1 billion overbudget v.a. medical center construction project in colorado, bonuses. a doctor implicated in overprescribing opioids at the v.a. facility called candyland where veterans were harmed, bonus. we can't let these bonuses keep going to wrongdoers. it will just continue the erosion of trust for our veterans who have done so much to defend this nation and our freedom, and that's why we need to pass this bill. the v.a. secretary must be active in pursuing the disciplinary actions against employees guilty of misconduct so they aren't getting bonuses and taking away resources that could go to hispanic our veterans. -- that could go to help our veterans. the v.a. secretary does not have the authority right now to go after a bonus even if the bonus is given to a wrongdoer to get

that money back. this bill passed out of committee by a voice vote. it passed out of the house of representatives by a voice vote. leat put this authority into law so those who break the law don't get bonuses. that is why i'm standing on the floor today asking for unanimous consent to pass this legislation. mr. president, i ask that -- i ask unanimous consent that s. 627 be called up and passed. i ask that the -- excuse me. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 240, s. 627. i further ask that the ayotte and brawn brown amendments be agreed to, the committee's reported substitute amendment as amended be agreed to, the bill as amended be a read a third time and passed, title amendment be agreed to and that the

motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cardin: reserving the right to object, mr. president, i agree with much of what the senator from new hampshire has said, and that is our veterans deserve to have the highest quality care at the veterans administration. those employees at the veterans administration that have not carried out their responsibilities should be disciplined, and when there's asked for respondings, there should be consequences to adverse findings. so i agree with much of what she's said. leat be mindful that the overwhelming number of federal workers, including those at the veterans administration, are hardworking public servants, asked to do more with less resources, that have been through freezes, furloughs, government shutdowns, sequestration, you name it. i understand that the veterans administration committee is considering a more comprehensive

legislation, as they should. as my colleague from new hampshire has mentioned, this deals with one aspect of those who have adverse findings in regards to their ability to get bonuses or the reprimand on their record. here's my problem: if you use a u.c., a unanimous consent request, there is no opportunity for amendment, no opportunity for debate. and when i finish my comments, i'm going to make -- ask that the senator amend her unanimous consent request to include an amendment that i want to offer. let me explain what it does. yes, we want to hold the employee accountable, those who have not carried out their public trust in which there are adverse findings. but there also has to be accountability for the supervisors, for those who should be managing the agency so that you don't have employees

doing what they did. managers need to have tools. they knead to be able to manage their employees. they need to be able to determine how their employees are handled if we're going to hold them accountable. and irpt to hold the supervisors accountable. so my amendment would allow the supervisors to determine the length of the suspension of bonus that the individual could receive. it could be -- the presiding officer: if i'd just ask members to take their conversation to the side. it is picking up. mr. cardin: i appreciate the presiding officer. thank you very much. i thought i was getting agreement from over here. it could be longer than five years, which is the bill that the senator from new hampshire has done. it could be less. but it would be the manager/super advisor who would determine the length of the suspension and the trite receive the bonus. so that the manager has the

tools in order to manage the workforce and we can hold the supesupervisor accountable. the second is similar, as it relates to the reprimand being re-toned in the records. allow the manager to have the discretion as to the length of time. the bill that the senator from new hampshire is recommend something a five-year hard period. doesn't give the manager the ability to use these tools as ways to advance service to our veterans, and the bottom line here is service to our veterans. that's the bottom line. that they get the service servit they deserve. so, mr. president, i would ask that the senator modify her request so that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 240, s. 275, that in lieu of the committee-reported substitute and title amounts, that the cardin substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to, that the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, that the cardin title amendment

be agreed to, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate. that would be carry out the modifications that i said, giving the manager the ability to impose either shorter or longer period of time than the gentlelady's amendment. the presiding officer: does the senator from new hampshire so modify her -- ms. ayotte: no, i do not. the presiding officer: is there objection to the original request? mr. cardin: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: mr. president, i certainly want to thank the senator from maryland, but i fully agree. i think there are many hardworking federal employees, and the reason that i have been fighting for this bill in particular is, number one, to make sure that those who commit misconduct are held accountable; number two, i actually want to make sure that we aren't sending the message to the people that are working hard and doing their

jobs, when they see someone else working who has committed misconduct and literally manipulated wait lists get a bonus, then that actually de-moralizes the good, hardworking employees that are doing their j jobs and serving certainties, and so this is about making sure that actually the pooh people who do a good job, we want them to be recognized. but when you give a bonus to someone who has committed misconduct, you de-moralize not only obviously undermine our system, thinking about the veterans who have served our nation with so much courage and done so much for us, not only do we corrode their trurveghts but i think w we corrode the trust f the workforce doing the great work every day. i want to thank those who are doings good work for our behalf. and i've got a chance it meet many of them. i want to address the senator

from maryland's point about giving managers authority. and i would just like to point out, the problem we have here is that this is rampant, absolutely rampant. and if you look at what happened with the director of the feignics v.a. who lost -- lost her job, fired for misconduct, where literally wait lists were manipulated and veterans died, well, she got a $9,000 bonus. so who are we going to leave discretion on here when many of the managers who i know need to manage the facilities -- it is important -- but when it comes to the bonus issue, you know, you literally would be putting, for example, in the phoenix situation, the individual who gets fired for overseeing all this in charge of whether and how long other people's bonuses

are clawed back. i would also say this has been rampant, not just the director of the phoenix v.a., but the other examples that i gave. the v.a. senior managers who improperly leveraged their positions to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in relocation funds. so, in other words, misappropriating taxpayer dollars. they got bonuses, too. they're managers. you've got executives overseeing the huge cost overrun in the colorado v.a. who got bonuses. and here you have many examples where if we put this into the discretion of how long this is going to go in place instead of putting a logical time period in place, which my bill does, then we're going to keep perpetuating the same situation where the discretion makes it so it doesn't happen. understand that worries me because unfortunately we have a pattern here that needs to be addressed. second, i would just say that as

you look at even the ability to retain records, most employers do have a standard record keeping in terms of how long if you receive a reprimand or admonishment how long that is retained. so if we just leave that completely loosey-goosey discretion among managers, some of which have been part of this misconduct, then i fear there really will be no accountability understand that these provisions will not have the teeth in them that they should. and let me just say that this bill that we've been working on that did pass out of committee, this is something that i've been work on for negotiating for months. so working and taking people's concerns into account, and it does ensure that before any employee is subject to having the bonus clawed back, they do have an opportunity for due process. so that is built into this, to challenge the underlying claims

made against them. but if we put this all into a discretionary basis, then we're just going to be in the same situation that we are right now angz not have the teeth -- and not have the teeth that we need anin this such commonsense measure. i talked to some of my constituents about this issue, and they can't believe that we actually have to pass a law to say if you got a bonus and you commit misconduct and in fact one of the reasons you got the bonus is because of the misconduct, because you manipulated the wait list, that we actually have to pass a law to say, yes, you have to give that money back. and you shouldn't be receiving the bonus. it is kind of shocking that this isn't just common sense. right now the v.a. secretary does not have this authority. our veterans deserve better. this is plain common sense. and i'm disappointed that the

modification that was sought on the floor would weaken this common sense bill. i am going to continue to fight for more accountability in our v.a. but let's have some common sense in all of this that we shouldn't be rewarding our employees who are committing misconduct for the very conduct that they're committing that, unfortunately, is harming our veterans who have done so much for this nation. and i'm the granddaughter of a world war ii veteran and so my husband is an iraq veteran, and i've had the privilege in my job of meeting so many of our veterans, both current active duty military and those who have served in conflicts going back to world war ii. and there is no greater example of patriotism and what makes our country great than our veterans. and really if you think about what has happened in our v.a.

and how shameful it is, this is something that we need to make sure we get right once and for all for those who have defended this nation, who really show us when it means to be -- what it means to be an american. so i'm going to continue to fight for such a commonsense feepiece of legislation. but i would hope my colleagues would joining me in this so that we could make sure that the v.a. performs its mission, which is to give our veterans the best care that they can receive and that they certainly have earned defending our great nation. thank you, mr. president.

i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from california. the mrs. boxer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: mr. president, just a little while ago there was an overwhelming vote to proceed with the f.a.a. bill, the federal aviation administration bill, a very important bill. i know how hard the managers worked on it. the chairman and the ranking member and i have a tremendous amount of respect for them. i voted "no." only four of us voted "no," so it's rare that i do that and i felt it was important for me to explain why. mr. president, we have in our nation an amazing system of transportation. we always have to stay on top of it and make it safer and safer. and there's one thing we know without a doubt. we know it intuitively but we also know it because the national transportaion safety board has told us that the

number-one problem they face in terms of safety is fatigue. and we all know how it is, all of us, regardless of what we do for a living, we all know how it feels when we're utterly exhausted. we're not making the same decisions we would make. we can't carry them out in the same way we would. it is not rocket science. it's sleep science. and we know about it because experts have told us. and the ntsb has told us. now, i want to show you a picture of two planes. they look exactly alike. two planes that look exactly alike. mr. president, as our kids say, one of these things is not like the other. here's a cargo plane and a passenger jet. they're the same size. they fly over the same skies. they have pilots that we trust,

that we count on. and here's the situation today. because of special interest pressure, there's different rest rules. the passenger plane pilot can only fly up to nine hours a day because, rightly so, with all of that responsibility, that pilot has to get rest. the cargo plane pilot -- same exact plane -- that pilot can fly up to 16 hours a day before he or she is guaranteed a rest. mr. president, i know that you have worked very hard in recent months and i know the energy it took for you to get out and do what you did. and i know what it was like for me when i was running for the senate so many times for --

thank you, california -- 40 million people in the state, how hard it is, how much you need your rest so you're sharp, so you can think. and, you know, the thing about us and our work is, we make a mistake, it only hurts us. when a pilot makes a mistake, it can hurt a much larger community. because, again, the cargo plane is flying over the same homes as the passenger jet. how does it make sense to say one can fly up to 16 hours and one not, especially when the national transportaion safety board has said pilot fatigue is one of the biggest problems we're facing today? now, you might say, can you prove that it's a problem? yeah, i'm going to prove it to you. i'm going to show you a conversation that took place between two cargo -- the pilot and a copilot.

this was 2013 and this was -- they were over alabama. this is excerpts from the grave, okay? this is dramatic stuff. this isn't me trying to persuade you, mr. president. this is the pilots. pilot number one: i don't get it. you know, it should be one level of safety for everybody. pilot two: it makes no sense at all. pilot one: no, it doesn't at all. and to be honest, it should be across the board. to be honest in my opinion whether you are flying passengers or cargo, if you're flying this time of day, you know fatigue is definitely -- and the other pilot says, yeah, yeah. and then finally, "when my alarm went off, i mean, i'm thinking i'm so tired." and the pilot answers, "i know." well, look what happened to this

plane within an hour of that conversation, mr. president. look what happened to that plane. this is what happened. and the pilots are dead. now, after the flight recorder was released and this conversation was held, i thought for sure this administration would do the right thing. they did the wrong thing. and this senate did the wrong thing. this isn't partisan. we've got the obama administration, who i agree with and boy did i hear some amazing news on jobs. i'm just saying, on this, they haven't been right. there ought to be no disparity between a pilot who's flying a passenger jet and a pilot who's flying a cargo jet. the pilots are telling us this and the pilots who are telling us this are not selfish. many of them are, in fact, the

pilots of passenger jets, like all the southwest airlines, 8,000, right? ,000 of the8,000 of them said wt the boxer-klobuchar amendment. i can't get a vote. that's why i voted "no" with three other colleagues, this was our reason. how do we do a bill like this and not address the number-one safety issue facing us? i don't really get it. now, if you don't believe me -- and fair enough, because i'm not a pilot, i admit it -- i just trust pilots. what's your choice? you walk on a plane. the pilot's in charge of the aircraft. you know that pilot wants to land safely. you know that pilot wants to go home to his or her family. you know that pilot has your best interests at heart. and sometimes i'm in a rush and i get in a plane and the pilot says, you know what? we're not going to take off right now because i noticed there's something wrong in one of the monitors here. it could be nothing but i put

safety first. everyone on that plane says oh, no, we're going to be late. they get out their cell phones, they call their loved ones. but we know the pilots know what they're talking about. we trust them. i trust them so much i wrote with senator -- then-senator smith the guns in the cockpit law for pilots. i mean, i have -- the n.r.a. thinks i'm the worst of the worst. i said i trust pilots. they should have a chance if there's a terrorist onboard. i trust them. why doesn't this administration trust them? because the special interests who make billions a year -- billions -- said it's going to cost us a teeny bit more. and it's a tiny bit more. you know what? what price, mr. president, could we put on our kids? none. there's none. for goodness sakes, if it costs

a few cents more to ship a package so that a pilot doesn't have to fly 16 hours, isn't that the right thing to do? so i'll close with a quote from sully sullenberger. i think we all remember sully. why don't we look at -- before we show that, let's remind people who he was, because we have another chart that shows it. here it is. thank you, denise. sully sullenberger was the hero of the hudson. we remember how he landed his plane in the hudson river, how he saved all the passengers on that plane and his crew. he is so famous now, mr. president, he goes all over the world. and he came to my press conference that i had with

senator klobuchar because she and i are working on this bill as well as senator cantwell, on this amendment. and his words were inspiring because he didn't kid around. he said, fatigue is a killer. fatigue is a killer. now, you don't have to say any more. if you know fatigue is a killer, then don't say passenger pilots get -- can fly nine hours but cargo pilots, 16. so here's what sullenberger said when we first introduced our legislation, the safe skies act. he said, "you couldn't want your surgeon operating on you after only five hours of sleep, or your passenger pilot flying the airplane after only five hours sleep, and you certainly

wouldn't want a cargo pilot flying a large plane over your house," mr. president, or my house, "at 3:00 a.m. on five hours of sleep trying to find the airport and land." and sully said at the press conference, had he been suffering from fatigue on that fateful day that he safely landed that plane in the waters of the hudson, if he was suffering from fatigue, he said, never could have done it. so i can't get a vote on my amendment. it's so simple even a six-year-old could understand it. you don't have disparity when you have the same responsibility and you're traveling in the same skies. and a cargo plane could crash into a house or another plane carrying passengers. and i'm so disappointed in this

administration that they have not done the right thing on th this. and i'm so disappointed in the united states senate that they blocked a vote on this because the special interests don't want to charge two, three, four cents more on their packages. come on. if it's to save lives of our people, this is what i call a classic no brainer. so i'm here today to say, explain my vote to my constituents why i voted no for an f.a.a. bill that otherwise is a good bill, but just to make a statement that this is ridiculous, not to give me an up-or-down vote. they tied it to other issues that are poison pills, immigration issues, gun issues. come on. this is the biggest problem, fatigue. can't we just get an up-or-down vote on it? and i'm going to try to do that at every chance i get.

and now i'm working on another modified amendment to see if we can get it into a package. i don't know whether we can or not. but i want to say to the pilots out there who may be listening to this debate. a lot of us here have your back. we're not going to forget about this issue just because the f.a.a. bill is moving forward. we're not going to forget about you. we're not going to forget about what it means when you're fatigued. we're not going to forget about the two pilots who through the recorder told us before they crashed they were exhausted and they addressed the issue of the disparity. and we're going to be fighting on this. we can't get it done here? maybe some brave soul in the house will do it, and it will wind up in the bill. we can't get it done legislatively? we're going to try to get it done through the f.a.a. regular

order of the rules. where is the f.a.a. on this? i want to say f.a.a., you've turned your back on two many -- on too many safety measures that the ntsb who's in charge of our safety has recommended. it took years to get some simple things done. so while we're working to get a modified amendment which is not going to be the be all and the end all, just move this a little bit forward, i just want to send a message that it's rare that i vote no, one of four. it doesn't happen often. but i view this as a moral issue. i view this as a moral issue for those pilots that are flying on 16 hours straight in the middle of the night whereas sully sullenberger said their sa rca dium rit chems are off, they're not at the top of their game and

are flying over the air space of the american people. mr. president, thank you so much for your attention. i live to fight another day, another hour, another minute on this. and i want the pilots to know and the flying public to know and everyone to know they should engage in this issue. no disparity between people who do the same work. thank you very much. i would yield the floor and i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. a senator: thank you, mr. president. is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call? a senator: i ask that it be vaish yated. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: i rise if support of the federal aviation reauthorization act to talk about the importance of passing this legislation to colorado and indeed the nation.

i dmerchedz senator thune, ranking nelson, senator cantwell in their working for crafting this very important piece of legislation. it's an economic driver, certainly a national security issue, a number of issues we're able to address of great importance. dioguardi our nation's air space -- mr. gardner: our nation's air space is clearly one of the economic drivers we have. movement of cargo along with the many other users of air space, whether they be for agriculture or unmanned aerial systems. the economic importance of aviation in colorado cannot be stated enough when it comes to tourism. in 2014 alone, 71.3 million visitors came to colorado with 18.6 billion -- $18.6 billion in economic for the state according to the colorado tourism office. that tourism results in well over a hundred thousand jobs throughout the state of colorado. many of these 71 million tourists came through denver

international airport. the nation's fifth busiest and largest commercial airport. in 2014 alone, more than 50 million people passed through denver international airport, a state with about five and a half million population, 50 million people passing through the fifth busiest airport. some of these passengers continuing on with one of colorado's additional 13 commercial airports or 60 general aviation airports. the economic impact that airports aviation has throughout the states absolutely incredible. nearly 300,000 jobs when you take into the multiplier effect are a result of aviation in colorado. a payroll of about $12.6 billion in colorado with the multiplier effect. for an economic output of $36.7 billion. in fact, there's one airport which is the u.s.' pee mere airport, centennial airport in colorado surrounded by 23 different parks with about 6,000 job -- 6,000 different businesses at this --

surrounding this airport in those 23 different business parks. this airport, those 6,000 businesses, the 23 business parks around the airport account for nearly 26% of colorado's total gross domestic product. think about that one airport, one business airport and the businesses that surround it account for nearly 27% of colorado's economy. and so whether it's skiing or snowboarding, vig continuing one of our great -- visiting one of our great national parks, enjoying the outdoors, camping, visiting orvis continuing one of our world class cities, it's not achievable without well run and maintained air space. these airports connect airports like denver, colorado to durango and colorado springs and pueblo. but lamar, colorado, yuma, colorado, the rest of the country and help businesses reach beyond the borders of our state. maintaining our airport infrastructure, then, becomes one of the most critical functions that we can perform.

communities in colorado and across the country continue to push their airport infrastructure, improvements, betterments to help realize the full potential, the economic potential to access that air space and the access that that air space indeed brings. that's why i'm glad to talk about this legislation and the many achievements that we were able to accomplish and the provisions that i was able to secure and include in the bill to help improve that airport infrastructure. including improvements to the airport improvement program or a.i.p. and the study with recommendations and upgrading and improving the nation's airport infrastructure. additionally, i'm pleased that this bill includes language that i pushed to help allow improvements to pena boulevard, the primary access road connecting denver international airport with the rest of colorado. if you've been to denver international airport and you've driven to downtown denver, you drove on pena boulevard. this bill will address the needs, the infrastructure, and the improvements that are needed

to make sure that pena boulevard remains an efficient, safe roadway to the nation's fifth busiest airport. it will allow d.i.a. the flexibility it needs and the flaherty to ensure primary access road that pena boulevard represents is capable of hand lipg the traffic -- handling the traffic that comes with increased use of the airport. the bill also includes language that builds on a successful pilot program for virtual towers and ensures that those towers will be eligible for a.i.p. funding once certified by the f.a.a. it's important because these virtual towers like the one in the fort collins-loveland airport area will allow small and medium sized airports to offer commercial service in an economically viable and sustainable way. in northern colorado really is the gateway to colorado's energy hub, the gateway to colorado's biotech, bioscience engineering research university hub and by allowing this virtual tower in

northern colorado and fort collins-loveland airport, we can help expand the opportunity to reach that area for businesses who wish to locate there, for customers who wish to fly into the area and also for those businesses to expand who are already there to have further reach around the country and the world. another central responsibility of the f.a.a. is to ensure that the air space is being safely managed while allowing the industries that are dependent on aviation to thrive. and i think that this legislation after months and months of work really does strike that appropriate balance. i was proud to support amendments during consideration of the bill that i believe will help ensure that the transportation security administration, law enforcement agencies and security personnel have the resources that they need to provide for the safety of the traveling public. and i believe more could and should be done, however. that's why i filed an amendment on the floor to the bill which will improve t.s.a.'s operations at our airports by creating a testing location to help t.s.a. and airports to work hand in

hand to develop future screening technologies and passenger screening methods to ensure we are able to keep passengers and airports safe. if you look at the needs that we have at airports, it's the combination of coming into an airport to checking in at an airport gate or kiosk. most people use their iphone or their smartphone to have their digital printout of a ticket. they don't even go to a kiosk. they just go to the security line. as we have seen, we need to have an increase in security from curb to gate. it's not just a security concern where people may be gathering around the screening or where people may be getting in and out of cars or lining up at desks. it is an overall from curb to gate security approach that we need. and that's what my amendment will accomplish. so i look forward to continuing work with senator thune and the commerce committee and a path forward for this amendment because it's critically important that we address additional security measures to prevent violence from happening and occurring at our airports,

like the recent terrorist attack in brussels. to remind people the attack in brussels didn't happen on an airplane. it happened outside where passengers were gathering. so if we can address this curb-to-gate security, alleviate the slowdowns and the spots that make it more difficult for efficiency at the airport to get through security, this amendment can help do that. we can avoid danger to the public from those who wish to do our people hample the bill includes important certification reforms that will improve the processing of new aircraft designs and modifications at the f.a.a. this is important because we had a crop duster in colorado who was trying to get his plane certified. this is a spray plane. but what he found out is, first of all, the f.a.a. was taking a very, very long time to certify his crop duster, to give him