Transportation, Housing And Urban Development, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010

Statement

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Mr. HOLT. I thank my colleague, Mr. Frelinghuysen, for yielding time to me. I certainly support what the chairman has done in this bill, and I commend him for it. I'm not opposed to redesign of our airspace, but I am opposed to FAA's current redesign plan. The FAA developed and implemented the redesign without consulting key stakeholders, for example, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, who are the primary users of these procedures.

Last year the FAA changed what is known as the ``dispersal headings'' for Newark and Philadelphia airports despite insufficient testing, unpublished procedures and failing to train the pilots and controllers. This led to frequent miscommunication between pilots and controllers, planes steering off course and near-collisions.

This amendment would strike the funding for continuing the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia metropolitan airspace design to allow time for the FAA, the National Air Traffic Controllers and other parties to work together to develop a comprehensive, multilateral approach to improving the system. Funding this project, going ahead as it is, is putting the safety of our constituents at risk, not dealing properly with noise or the efficiency of air travel. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

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