the f.a.a. to implement the findings of the national transportation safety board which many of us thought the f.a.a. already did to establish a pilot's record database to provide the airlines with fast, electronic database to disclose who is operating each flight and of vital importance to those who live in western new york, make the necessary changes to address the underreported and deadly issue of pilot fatigue and inability to fly in bad conditions. my concern, mr. speaker is that this amendment stands to undermine all of these reforms. it would lay additional lay ares to the f.a.a.'s already cumbersome rulemaking process change -- changing what we did last year. mr. speaker, i have the opportunity to represent western new york and flight safety is our highest priorities. it was outside buffalo in the suburb of clarence, new york, on a snowy february evening that continental connection flight 3407, operated by regional carrier cogan air, crashed to the ground killing all 49 passengers and one

the f.a.a.'s new york, new jersey, philadelphia air space redesign plan, which would redirect thousands of flights per year over the houses of many of my constituents and the constituents of the other sponsors of the bill as well. looking at this rewe realize this is a very real and negative impact upon the region including a potential for a decrease in home values. new flight patterns which would be considered here over the region should not be implemented until a thorough study of alternatives is presented to congress. this amendment ploibts the f.a.a. from continuing implementation of the airspace redesign until it has conducted a study on alternative designs to do -- who reduce delays at the airports considered in the redesign. finally, it is imperative that the f.a.a. consider the concerns of the people that are and have been afflicted by this action. i urge my colleagues to vote yes on this amendment. the chair: does the gentleman reserve his time? mr. garrett: i reserve my time. the chair

we took up an f.a.a. reauthorization bill. then we went on recess for a week. and now we're on a patent reform bill. now, madam president, i don't mean to suggest that f.a.a. and patent reform are not important. certainly we could have gone without having a recess. but both of those bills pale in comparison to the urgency of providing our servicemen and women with the resources that they need to carry out their mission. secretary gates, admiral mullen and other military leaders have repeatedly and clearly warned us about the dangers of failing to pass a full-year defense funding bill.

the f.a.a. suspends a veteran tower controller after he fell asleep during his overnight shift at reagan national airport. it could lead to major safety changes nationwide. >>> final wish. elizabeth taylor laid to rest during an emotional private service and at her request she arrived fashionably late. one last grand entrance for a hollywood legend today, friday sh mar, hollywood legend today, friday sh mar, march 25, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> and good morning. welcome to "today" on a friday morning. i'm mcalistatt lauer. >> i'm ann curry. just a short time ago japan's prime minister delivered an address to his nation issuing an apology to farmers and businesses damaged by the nuclear crisis. he's been thanking the so-called

and i am particularly devastated about the cuts in the f.a.a.'s next generation air traffic system, the nextgen. whenever you think of air traffic controllers i want you to think of first responders as i'll discuss an amendment regarding the issue of ensuring the kind of staffing needs necessary to engage in security. farther, since i have the largest airports in the country, bush intercontinental airport, which we were proud to name, i'm disappointed that the

, the f.a.a. today suspended the air traffic controller who was working alone yet missing in action when two passenger jets landed at reagan national airport early wednesday. there's a professional pilot for more than 25 years, i'm outraged by this and we have an investigation and we will get to the bottom of it. i want to know why this happened. >> reporter: american airlines flight 1012 was minutes from landing when the pilots radio it had reagan national control tower. getting no answer, they called a regional air traffic facility for help but controllers there had no better luck raising the tower. >> reporter: the jet, with 97 people on board, circled the airport as a precaution before landing safely with no assistance from the tower. minutes later, united airlines flight 628 was approaching the same runway. the tower was still silent. >> reporter: that plane, with 68 people aboard, then landed on its own. the veteran controller, a supervisor with a clean safety record over 20 years, says he f

h.r. 658, the f.a.a. re-authorization reform act of 2008 is a four-year re-authorization that would reduce the f.a.a.'s annual funding to approximately 2008 appropriation levels. $14.9 billion. for the remainder of 2011 and then each year through fiscal year 2014. h.r. 658 would effectively cut roughly $1 billion annually and almost $4 billion total below current funding levels from the f.a.a. budget over the next four years. these proposed cuts will have dire consequences on our nation's infrastructure, jobs and the economy. mr. speaker, in february the house aviation subcommittee held a hearing for industry stakeholders to testify about f.a.a. re-authorization. in response to a question that i posed, witnesses representing the aerospace industry, general aviation manufacturers, general aviation pilots, airports, air traffic controllers and f.a.a. managers all testified that congress could not cut $1 billion annually from the f.a.a.'s budget without harming safety sensitive programs or hampering the indu

i appreciate chairman mica including including the language in the f.a.a. bill and look forward to seeing the same language which was discussed in memphis. as "new york times" columnist said, we must win the future, not eat it. i look forward to working with chairman mica, subcommittee chairman duncan, the ranking members, rahall and defazio and see we pass the authorization that strengthens our infrastructure, spurs innovation, creates jobs, ensures safety and wins the future. we are winners. thank you. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida. mr. mica: i would like to inquire as to the balance of time on each side. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida has 15 minutes remaining and the gentleman from west virginia has 14 minutes remaining. mr. mica: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from west virginia. mr. rahall: i yield five fints to the gentlelady from california. the speaker pro tempo

later today they'll take up the f.a.a. re-authorization bill. john boehner coming up shortly here live coverage on c-span. >> waiting to hear from house speaker john boehner, briefing shortly here on c-span. he is likely to talk about the budget negotiateations, where things stand, here almost aweek away before the end of the most recent, the sixth short-term spending bill. that is the deadline for that is next friday, april 8. so we will hear likely more about the potential for a government shutdown. the senate is in today. they continue work on their small business bill. it looks like there will be a number of amendment votes that will be later on today in the senate. can you follow that of course on c-span2. and on c-span3, covering a couple of hearings with defense secretary gates and admiral michael mullen. they are talking about in particular about military action against gaddafi forces in libya. that's going on now on c-span3, the house armed services is under way, then the senate armed services committee this afternoon, at 2:15 eastern.

also assist the libyan insurrection forces to say to them that it is very pass through move by the f.a.a. if they asked the west to come in to remove gadhafi for them then they would be puppets of the west when the well justin if i can go to you i mean i guess that's asking people to make a choice on the ground here i mean even i and i'm very very skeptical about this whole operation is you guys all can tell me i can understand rebels saying look i mean we're going to get massacred in the next forty eight seventy two hours can you stop that from happening and haven't we already done that isn't really the job according to the resolution been achieved and i think that's where the discussion is where we go next year. because the resolution isn't talk about any international force politically socially militarily supporting the insurrection in libya the resolution doesn't say that that's a good point i think it's an important distinction all the talk in strategic space in the media space in the political space has been about this you know the intent for regime change has been stated. but actu

the world on the other libertarian well he's a libertarian but you know he says he's inspired by the f.a.a. . however you know that we even libertarians the government has to regulate air pollution now even though charles koch sees themselves as the greatest libertarian funder in america he doesn't really ascribe to that part of. philosophy because a lot of the groups that he finds just simply benefit the koch industries bottom line the koch industries company has basically monetize the very worst types of carbon emitting industries whether it's fertilizer oil refinery. tar sands basically specialize in global warming and that's why the koch industries charitable funds you know almost three dozen different climate organizations so it's two things there's incredible you go there and you can see that in the piece they're bragging about how brilliant they are and the weekly standard person's lavishing praise on them on the other hand they want to make more money into the r. o. i their return on investment is incredible if you just think about the koch brothers made an additional eleven billio

days ago on march the ninth a blast took off near the academy a russian security service service the f.a.a. no casualties have been reported in just days later this friday we heard about these two explosions in a residential area in moscow again no casualties reported in a whole city fido kumar of group he says he claims responsibility for the blast on march the nine build though investigators suspect that he could be involved in the latest ones this friday as well what many security experts believe that terrorists will stop parading in russia get funding from abroad and some of the members are known to have been trained that right if you take take the deadly. bombing at the domodedovo airport those dogs that attack the busiest international airport in russia the terrorist clearly knew that not only russians were going to suffer we had french italian nationals who were caught up in this tragic attack and that really underscores course that the international dimension of what's going on there in russia and of perpetrators that instantly seem to care about nationality there it's really shock

now right now there is an experiment going on with f.a.a. and jetblue to see if we can put in new equipment. go away from our 1960's air traffic system and update it and be able to greatly expand the number of flights. and get rid of delays and move air traffic in and out. and that's a big deal in tourism industry, because time is money. and in terms of affordability, i was talking to someone at a party friday night and she told me she retired and has a guest house in harlem and loaded for opportunities and you can go to ethic neighborhoods. and my neighborhood has local accommodations and we have wonderful restaurants and legacy and italian and best mid east food in the city. >> and i have heard that over the years a lot of people don't want to bring their conventions because of the unions and in the case of the cable industry pull cables. >> this is great, you are giving me an opportunity of everything we fixed in the last two decades. and new york had a problem with our feather bedding and under costs was fixed. >> how. >> they came down

f.a.a., 280,000 jobs. we just finished within the last few hours the bill that will change the patent system in this country, that's needed changing for 60 years, and we've done that. and now they're blocking our going to a small business bill, another bipartisan bill. senator snowe, the ranking member of that committee, has worked with senator landrieu to move this bill forward. why -- who's holding up our going to this very important jobs bill? i hope the republicans in the house are understanding what we're doing over here, creating jobs. with those two bills i've just mentioned, the patent bill and the bill dealing with the federal aviation administration, that's 580,000 jobs. 580,000 jobs. so i'm very disappointed that i have to file cloture on proceeding to a small business jobs bill. mr. president, i now ask consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business, senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous conse

. >>> and the f.a.a. is now investigating why the pilots of two planes had to land without clearance at a major national airport because they couldn't find an air traffic controller to talk to them. >>> good morning. right now traffic on highway 4 is getting slower. looks okay at bay point. more about the morning commute straight ahead. >>> three workers are recovering at a hospital after being injured at that nuclear power plant in japan. the workers suffered radiation burns when they stepped into contaminated water while installing electrical cable in one of the reactor units. so far more than two dozen people have been injured at the plant since it was damaged in the march 11 earthquake and tsunami. don't forget you can find more quake and tsunami coverage and updates along with a link to donate money for relief efforts in japan by clicking the tab on our home page of ktvu.com. >>> time now 5:15. this morning the foreign minister of france said he hopes the international intervention in libya is a warn

one is the f.a.a. reauthorization, which is long overdue. it is a bipartisan bill, passed overwhelmingly here in the senate and would save or create 280,000 jobs. pretty good step in the right direction. over the last 24 hours we passed the patent reform bill. that will create 300,000 jobs. these two jobs bills need to be completed by the house of representatives so we can send them to the president. these two jobs bills are important. the house should focus on jobs, not these arbitrary cuts that they have been making. i repeat, i would hope that the house would right away work on our jobs bills that already passed the senate. patents and of course the f.a.a. bill. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader is recognized. mr. mcconnell: throughout the week i pointed out that our nation faces a day of reckoning on entitlements like social security and medicare, and i've expressed my disappointment about the white house failure to lead on reforms that would save these programs, that would save these programs at

patents and of course the f.a.ae dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. sessions: mr. president, we had two important votes yesterday on what we're going to about the surging set that this nation is incurring and the dangers that debt poses to the future health of our economy, prosperity of our people, the employment of our people. we had a debt crisis, financial crisis in 2007, and we still haven't recovered from it damaged us. it damaged american individuals. there are people employed -- unemployed today in large numbers because of that and we haven't yet recovered from it. we have some growth, but we have not come out of it. and we've got to deal with that in a serious way. so the proposal was, as passed by the house, to reduce the spending for the rest of this seven months in this fiscal year ending september 30th, b by $61 billion and our colleagues in the senate proposed to do nothing, basically, $4.6 billion reduction in spending over the rest of this fiscal year. that's an unacceptable numb

give our children the right liftoff in their lives, many of them struggle and, unfortunately, many f.a.a. so when the house republicans say -- many fail. so when the house republicans say the way to deal with our deficit is to cut hundreds of thousands of these children out of the head start program, to dismiss tens and thousands of teachers and staff, you have to step back and say are you sure? has it reached that point? are we at a point now where we have to deny these children access to the kind of learning experience that makes their school experience later on more successful? i don't think so. an honest look at our deficit would not just go aviation and research -- go aviation and research and investment in our infrastructure. it would look across the board as the bowl-seupl stopb commission -- simpson commission did. how can we look at at this time, denying money to the poorest schools in america where they literally struggle day to day to try to turn the lives around of children who are in very dire circumstances. to cut, as the house republicans suggested, pell grants. pell grant

and yesterday the house by voice vote approved the short-term f.a.a. re-authorization. the longer-term bill coming up on thursday. and then on friday, what's being termed as symbolic, "the hill" reports it this morning, house republicans, they write, will take another symbolic shot of forcing the senate's hand in the budget battle by passing a bill friday that they characterize is another attempt to avert another government shutdown. majority leader eric cantor says republicans will pass it friday by the april 8 deadline. the bill would become the law of the land. look for that on friday on the house floor. now we're going to take you live to the house floor as members gavel in momentarily. the speaker: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered today by our chaplain, father coughlin. chaplain coughlin: we pray. those who put their trust in you, lord god, like the mountains that cannot be shaken. they seem to absorb all the turmoil and controversy. they stand tall and strong forever. just as the mountains as well as the depths of the seacoast surround this n

we took up an f.a.a. reauthorization bill. then we went on recess for a week. and now we're on a patent reform bill. now, madam president, i don't mean to suggest that f.a.a. and patent reform are not important. certainly we could have gone without having a recess. but both of those bills pale in comparison to the urgency of providing our servicemen and women with the resources that they need to carry out their mission. secretary gates, admiral mullen and other military leaders have repeatedly and clearly warned us about the dangers of failing to pass a full-year defense funding bill. it is hurting our national security and harming our readiness. secretary gates put it bluntly, saying -- quote -- "the continuing resolution represents a crisis at our doorstep." deputy secretary of defense william lynn testified that a yearlong c.r. will damage national security. madam president, in no time in recent memory has congress failed to pass a defense appropriations bill. even when there was a year-long continuing resolution for most of the government during fiscal year

the senator from alaska and i put into an amendment on the f.a.a. bill getting rid of all earmarks, money that's parked. save us a billion dollars. so the fact is, is we can do this if we'll stand up and do the job we were hired to do. and the job we're hired to do is to make the difficult decisions. so my hope is is that things will break loose and will revert to the best of the tradition of the senate is have a real debate about real amendments, taking the tough votes and defending them on principle. and take the political calculus out of it. it is not popular for me in oklahoma to eliminate the blenders credit on ethanol. we have a lot of corn farmers. but the fact is is the very people who get this, british petroleum, valero, exxonmobil, chevron don't want it. i've got a letter from them saying they don't want the blenders credit. that's who gets it. only 16% of the ethanol is produced by farmer cooperative ethanol plants. 84% is not. it's produced by the big boys. they're saying they don't want it. so why don't we save $5 billion between now an

the first two, the f.a.a.e-authorization, the second the patent reform bill have passed, and it is my real hope that all of us in this chamber will seriously consider supporting s. 493. the 30 million small businesses in america are incubators of creativity and job creation. they drive our innovation sector and make us more competitive globally. in addition to employing over half our private sector work force, small businesses are the backbones of our american communities and can be a source of economic advancement for millions of americans in every state. the small business innovation research programmer sbir sets aside a small part of the research and development budget from a number of federal agencies to be used as grants for small businesses, and the small business technology transfer program or sttr helps scientists and innovators at research institutions take their discoveries and commercialize them through small business start-ups. since their creation in 1982 and 1992, respectively sbir and sttr have

infrastructure committee and it was revealing to talk about the changes that the people were proposing to the f.a.a. bill that would have changed the way you count votes. ms. hirono: it doesn't happen in any other arena and certainly if we have to count votes where all the people who were registered to vote didn't count and would be counted as a no vote, i would say most of us here, including our friends on the other side of the aisle would not be here. that is very telling to be the kind of perspective that is reflected and any kind of an effort that goes after government employees, and today, we are here to talk about the thousands and thousands of federal employees who are doing the job every single day to keep our government going. who do we think keeps government going, but our workers. and we need to acknowledge that, honor them and when you go to the social security office, for example, as i have, and you see the federal employees processing the paperwork that needs to happen so that our seniors can get the benefits that they have worked hard and they deserve. you go to an unemployment line

f.a.a. reauthorization, 280,000 jobs. i would hope that the house would complete these measures. we're waiting -- the president's waiting for these matters rather than doing the things that they're doing that are not job creating. there's a piece in "the washington post" today about how the republicans are being so shortsighted. for every dollar we spend with the i.r.s. going after people who cheat, we bring in more than $10 to the treasury. they're cutting the ability of the i.r.s. to go after people who cheat paying their taxes. that makes it more difficult for people who pay their taxes. so i would hope that they would get off the government bashing program they've been on and focus on job creation. we all know that we need to reduce our debt. and we're engaged in that, but in a way that is smart, not twhai is -- not in a way that is indicated in that "washington post" article that is pennywise and pound foolish. would the chair now announce morning business. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order the senate w

i mean, we've done f.a.a. hey, great, i want to fly on a safe plane. i get it. we've also done the patent bill, and i want safe drugs, i want safe everything. i get. all right? now, we're on the small business. and the gentleman before me spoke. i get it. i'm on the committee, i'm happy to do it. but are you kidding me? i mean, really. we're in the biggest financial mess that we've ever been in and we're doing everything but dealing with the -- with the financial mess. so here we are, you know, we'r we're -- we're at a 14 -- when i got here, just for the people listening, $11.95 trillion national debt. it's over $14.3 trillion and counting. it's an historic deficit. and, unfortunately, despite passing six different fy 2011c.r.'s, each with an understanding that passage would move our negotiations further along, we're once again faced with the likely hoofed a government shut -- likelihood of a government shutdown. i never, ever thought i would be a united states senator from massachusetts and come here and say, oh, my gosh, i was actually here when they actually

just like we did with the patent bill, just like we did with the f.a.a. bill. it's a jobs bill, and we shouldn't move on. we -- we should move on. we should have the amendments focused on how to improve a jobs bill and not do all this other extraneous stuff that virtually without exception has nothing to do with this bill. so, mr. president, at 12:00 noon, the senate will proceed to consideration of h.j. res. 43, the three-week continuing resolution. there will be three hours of debate on that matter prior to vote on passage of the resolution. following the c.r., there will be two minutes for debate prior to vote on calendar nomination number 11, amy berman jackson to be u.s. district judge for the district of columbia. we will have a briefing this afternoon for senators at 2:00 dealing with the situation in the middle east. that will be a classified briefing. mr. president, i would ask consent that the time used by my friend, who is my friend, i have the greatest respect for senator alexander. he is a true gentleman. that the time that he used in his speech th

senator begich and i foun found $1 billion in the f.a.a. bill from earmarks tied up, no money spent on them in 10 years, that's a billion dollar savings. if we do it $6 billion it $6 billion, $1 billion, $2 bi it $6 billion, $1 billion, $2 bi llion at a time, pretty sure we're going to add up and take some pressure off our country in terms of funding our debt. and the ultimate course has to be that we're convincing the world that we get it. that we can't continue to spend in the world financial market and expect them to continue to loan us money. it's a straightforward amendment. my corn farmers in oklahoma don't like it. i understand that. but it's about doing the right thing for our country and now's the time to do it. and with that, i'd yield back the floor. ms. landrieu: thank you. mr. president, i really appreciate the cooperation of the senator from oklahoma. we have been able to get his amendment number 184 pending added to the list of seven others, which gives us eight pending amendments. none have been scheduled for a vote. if he w

this week we'll also start debating a jobs bill -- another jobs bill, we did the f.a.a. bill, the patent bill, we're told by the experts that's almost 600,000 jobs. the job we're going to take up now will help small businesses do what america businesses do best, imagine, innovate, and invent. the bill will -- we'll soon discuss will help a research program to create jobs and shape the future since president reagan started this program three decades ago. these investments work. they've helped get new ideas off the ground. everything from the electric toothbrush to satellite antenna that helped our first responders in haiti to technology that keeps our food safe. one company in carson city, nevada have used this small business innovation program to support a technology that helps firefighters reach people on the highest floors of burning buildings. another nevada company from henderson, nevada, has developed an advanced rechargeable battery that our troops are using on the field. there are success stories like this in every state because of this legislation that was enacte