petri: mr. speaker, i yiel myself sme as i ma consume. the speaker pro temp the geleman is recognized. mr. petr i rise in suppt of the resolutionefore us, hse resoluon the imasurable contribio of fatrs in the healt velopment of children, suppting resnsible fatherodd encging greater involvemof fathers in tivesf theirchdren especially oath day and real oevery day. chilenwith ined caring thers ve irove educational outcesompad withldren whose fas are abse. a number of stiesuggest thatathers who arnvolved nurturing and plfulh their fanthavechildren th hher i.q.' as we as letterlinguisticandognitive capaciti. toddlers wth involved fathers go on to start school with higherevelsf academic readiness. handle t stresses and d ca frustrns associated with schoolg more rdily than children withesvolved faers. the inuence of aatr's involvemenondemic achievement extends io adolescence anyoung adulthood. for inance, a u. departmen ofducation study fnd that highly invold bigical fatherha children who were childr t

petry for his opening statement and then we will go immediately to our first members panel. i welcome everyone today to the aviation subcommittee hearing on the proposed merger between united airlines and continental airlines and its potential effects for consumers and the industry. in particular, i want to welcome the families of flight 3407 for being with us today and for the support to improve pilot training and safety in the industry. given that we have several panels today, and i think a total of 18 witnesses, as i said i will be brief with my statements and asked mr. petry to do the same period last month, united and continental announced that they would merge to form an airline debt by several measures would be the largest airline in the world. united and continental claim that the proposed merger will generate $1.20 billion in annual revenue and create cost synergies for more effective aircraft utilization, more comprehensive route networks, and improved operation efficiencies. in 2008, this subcommittee held a hearing on the merger of delta airlines and northwest. a

petri. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. petri: i thank my colleague, representative davis from kentucky, for yielding me this time. i also would like to--my subcommittee chairman, mr. costello, and chairman, mr. observer starks -- mr. oberstar, and my colleague, mr. mica from florida, have been working on this conference and on this legislation now for longer than we would have liked. it's too bad we have to do what will be our, i guess, 14th or 15th extension of the existing law, but it's unfortunately necessary to do that to give us time to complete work on the conference which actually is well under way. -- underway. in way of last year we passed the re-authorization act of 2009, h.r. 915. this markser march the -- march the senate passed its own bill which the house took up, amended, passed, and sent back to the senate. while a conference has not been called, staff from both chambers have been in informal discussions for months to reconcile the two versions of the bill. all these discussion vs. led to tentative agreemen

petrie. i raised the issue of what would happen with the employees and judging by the prior experience with airline mergers and what has happened to employees and mr. roche rowers this experience that he has been through. i understand there is a lot of uncertainty about the future of the merged airline. i have also raised the point that i made that this their word -- that i may if there were agreements with the unions, it would make this a much to the merger being approved. i want to know, thus far, have you been at the table as far as the merger has been discussed? what have you learned? what are the answers that you are waiting for? we will start with capt. morrison. i want to know where -- what has happened so far and what you want to see happen. >> i would begin by saying that we started the process. we have negotiated and expense reimbursements commission. we do not think employees should have to pay for the expenses of the merger. it is the ceos that wanted to merge, not the employees.

in that giant petri dish that i've talked about. we have become the unchallenged greatest nation in the world, with a vigor and a vitality and a character all our own. there's something unique about being in america. we need to understand that it's not something to apologize for. we have an extra blessing here and that comes about because of the things that i've talked about and others that i haven't mentioned yet tonight. we have an extra blessing. an extra vigor and there's something about us, maybe there's a little bit of an american attitude. you know, i don't know, maybe muhammad ali that said, if you can do it, it ain't bragging. we should be more in our character in the things we do, we should also have confidence and i have a constituent that just passed away who is a man of high values and faith and character, world war ii veteran, and i got to know him well. i interviewed him on his world war ii experience in a video that i believe we have now stored over at the archives in the library of congress. but he served in germany

petri: aocumen nessary foresponsible rning. each andevery ye exce thi one. whatthoble in additionto outlinig spending for the year ahead, budget resolutions include s for multiple yrs, laying out antipaddi in revenue ad calculating ticipated deficits and surpluses. if theouse were to pass a 2011 budgeresoluonit would establish as offical houspocy that we wi run enormous deficits r as far as the eye casee. several mocrats here relut to assocte uch an s with irresponsie docunt. of coue it's theoretically possible the current hse majorityould propose a budget resoluon mapping path back to the balanced budgets. nosutantial members of th democrat think we should be spendingmo n less. with members of the majory party lling pposite directions, the majority adershppears to ha given up on finding the votes necessarto pass an ficial dget whetherg spding or th is ailure. the speaker prtempore: the len's me has expired. for wh pur doethe ntleman from la rise? to address the house foe minute. e speaker pro tempore: wiout objection. >> thankou, mr. speaker. is isouth loui

we've seen this vitality in the giant petri dish of america. every component that's been positive has been if here in this country, put here by providence. the natural resources, the understanding of the adam smithian component of economic theory, the supply and demand, invisible hand component of economic theory, the age of reason and from greece and the roman law that found their way through the dark ages and emerged as the age of enlightenment, all here, the united states of america, unlimited natural resources that go along with it. those components, driven by the vitality of the immigrants that have come here, have been essential to this nation rising through the challenges of the ages and facing off against the world when we didn't see ourselves as a world power. we didn't see ourselves as a world power when we found ourselves in the spanish-american war. so we have the legacy of that that exists today. we can -- puerto rico is one of those components. philippines are another. that goes around the world pretty well. we didn't view ourselv