c-span.org. >> do you solemnly swear that the testimony that you've about to give, will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god. saturdays watch america history t a congress investigates as we explore majortigations in our country's history by the u.s. house and senate each week authors and stories will help the stories, historic footage from the periods and examine impact and key congressional hearings. proceeds going to rebels in nicaragua. >> by a vote of 8 t4 the senate passed a 5-year reauthorization bill for federal aviation program, that legislation now goesohe house for final approval. the current funding initially

set t expire this friday at midnight, senators also approd a one-week faa extension until may 17th to give the house mor time to take up the long-term measure. here is the chair and ranking member of the senate commerce science and transportation committee, senators maria cantwell and ted cruz speaking on the floor after final passage. >> the house of representatives should quickly take it up and t pass it and send to the president's desk for signature. this legislation is a strong bipartisan that includes hundreds of priorities for senators and representatives both republican and democrat. this bill gives the faa the safety tools it needs at a critical time to help bring new

aerospace technologies to market. i want to thank the staff that spent countless hours hemmerring out this legislation. this was no easy task. as i stated earlier, this bipartisan product was result of many, many months of hard work, late nights, there were many times that it appeared that the bill was not going to make it over the finish line and the hard work of the staff is a big part of the reason we are where we are tonight. i want to thank my staff for their tireless efforts to get this billis passed into law. many thanks to samone paris who has not slept in about six months. i will note she broke her footstepping on a dump truck of her young son but i personally said she got the foot boot from kicking hind quarters since the presiding officer is also a pastor i will make sure to speak

in a way that's appropriate in front of a pastor anna hagan, m liz today braid, christian mcmullin, leah mckinney, o m.r.i. saran and aaron wrights. i'm thankful to chairman cantwell and her staff. the chair has worked tirelessly as well and her staff. we have worked hand in hand navigating issues, some passionate. we went back and worked out a compromise. they had been terrific partners with us and i look forward to our committee continuing to produce strong bipartisan products in the near future and the weeks and months ahead. i would be remiss if i also didn't thank senators moran and duckworth who serve as the leaders on the aviation safety operations and innovation

subcommittee. i appreciate both senator moran and senator duckworth and their staff for working clabively with us -- collaboratively with us on this bill. i would like to thank senate legislative counsel, specifically john gettchris, ruth ernst and c.j. murphy who worked long hours and late nights to make this bill happen. and now, mr. president, i look forward to going to ronald reagan national airport, getting on an airplane and flying home to texas. i yield the floor. ms. cantwell: mr. president, i, too, with a partisan to the thanks our colleagues for their hard work and their overwhelming support for the passage of this legislation. this legislation will now hopefully go to our house colleagues on the consent calendar on tuesday and then very shortly after that to the president's desk. this is historic bipartisan, bicameral legislation that not

only invests in the federal aviation administration but the national safety transportation board for the next five years. it is a record reauthorization to make sure that our safety regulators and our safety investigators make aviation the safety gold standard of the world. this bill not only provides those authorizations, but i believe it helps give consumers the right kind of refunds for tickets after three hours of delay. it also puts the right safety people on the job, both at our air traffic controller system and at the faa oversight of manufacturers. by assuring that we have the safest aviation system in america, we are investing in our economy. aviation contributes more than 5% to our gdp, $1.9 trillion of economic activity, and it supports over 11 million jobs. and if you ask me, the best way

to the middle class is get an aviation job, coming in as working-class, leaving at middle-class, as many manufacturing jobs in my state represent. our bill invests in the growth and well-being of that aviation workforce to try to continue to thrive by making education investments in controllers, machinists, engineers, mechanics, pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, maintenance workers and all those who are the backbone of the aviation economy. i want to thank my colleague and partner in this, senator cruz, the ranking member of the commerce committee, for everything he's done to help pass this landmark legislation. it really was a bipartisan effort, and his efforts were instrumental in helping us get this legislation over the goal line. i, too, want to thank many of our colleagues. he mentioned our two colleagues, the chair of the subcommittee,

senator duckworth, and senator moran, who both played a long and terrific advocacy role on very key sections of this bill, including essential air service and expanding the aviation workforce in our country. i want to thank house transportation infrastructure committee chairman graves and ranking member larson from my state for their leadership and dedication to making this a bicameral product and certain will i making it bipartisan. -- and certainly making it bipartisan. i also want to thank president biden, secretary buttigieg and administrator whitaker as we moved through this legislation and senator schumer for helping us get this bill to the last phases here and over the goal line. i also want to thank senator schumer and thune, duckworth and sinema for helping to negotiate key provisions of this bill related to pilot training. nearly 3 million passengers fly in and out of our airports and making sure that we have the

safest skies by the faa doing its job is exactly why we needed this bill. this bill implements new safety improvements in that workforce and codifies, as i mentioned, strong consumer protections like refunds. and it provides direction and resources to build and well-train faa workforce. i want to thank the hard work of senators casey and fetterman, including in this bill that helps the faa require airlines to have a secondary cockpit barrier to ensure that safety and security of our flight deck is there. i want to thank senator klobuchar for advancing the aircraft runway traffic and landing technologies to prevent near misses, a conversation that has been very much part of this debate. the air service technology helps prevent, close quotes calls and at only 34 aircrafts, this bill was about expanding that as soon

as possible because the ntsb said that was one of their number-one recommendations. our bill will now require the deployment of this technology that will help prevent runway close calls at medium- and large-hub airports. building on the aircraft certification and accountability program, we help provide for significant improvements in the design process so the public is more informed and we also directed the faa to require training programs for those organizational design authorities -- these are the oda units -- that oversee the manufacturer. this involves understanding the safety management system and we know how important the safety management system is according to our expert review panel to implement into law. we authorized money for the next five years to boost the faa's

programs in safety, in factory inspections, and implemented a revised model that really helps us with our air traffic controller system. so critical because right now we need more air traffic controllers and we need them to be rested on the job. this bill also includes an important safety provision from senator schatz, a helicopter safety bill which brings standards to the commercial air tour systems in hawaii. and another major safeguard in safety is senator baldwin's provision with senators welch and capito called the global aircraft maintenance safety improvement act, which helps oversee the safety inspections at our overseas airports. there are nearly 1,000 faa certified moonlit nance and repair stations outside the united states and they need to make sure that they have the proper oversight. this helps raise those safety standards worldwide.

specifically you these technicians are now required to go with background checks, alcohol testing, and foreign repair stations are now subject to surprise inspections. as i mentioned, the ntsb authorization is critical, and i want to thank my colleague, senator lujan, for his leadership on helping get this in the bill. but also one of the number-one requirements why we wand wanted to get this done with the in the in the is one -- with the ntsb is one of their key recommendations in this statute is is a 25-hour cockpit voice recording requirement that was also championed by senators blumenthal and wyden. this means when accidents happen, the ntsb will no longer be stifled by not getting the recording. they will have this recording and it will be required to be held for more than 25 hours. i mentioned the workforce issues, which to my state are paramount. we need to continue to train and skill the best workers and certainly that means air traffic

controllers and aviation safety inspectors. we also, besides the increase for air traffic controllers to help deal with the staffing gap, we are making sure that they have the best technology to work with as well. and our colleague, senator klobuchar, duckworth, moran, thune, peters, and kelly helped us to recruit and retain the next generation of workforce. so i can't thank all my colleagues enough. as mentioned and much discussed, congress is setting for the first time in statute a refund standard for consumers to get a refund on non-refundable tickets after three hours of delay in the united states. and for six hours on an international flight. these statutory rights are a big win for consumers. passengers can just reject

vouchers, alternative flights, and get a hassle-free refund. i want to thank senators markey and vance on their provision of the bill that says you cannot charge families extra dollars to sit next to each other. and the fact that they are championing, as senator markey and schatz did, a new office at the department of transportation to make sure that airlines receive fines if they don't adhere to those provisions. i also want to thank senator duckworth. i can't thank her enough, not just as the ranking member of the committee, but also for her key leadership on so many aspects of this bill. not only is she a pilot, but she understands the needs of handicapped individuals and made sure that this legislation did a better job of training and skilling people at our airports. she's had a true champion of the provisions of this bill dealing with wheelchair damage on flights and ensuring that passengers can safely evacuate a plane, if necessary.

we will be forever grateful for your many leadership provisions of this legislation. i want to just finally say senators tester, fischer and sullivan also worked on essential air service and infrastructure financing improvements to make sure that our airports in rural communities continue to grow, and senators peters, baldwin and warnock for championing additional federal resources to help airports dispose of harmful chemicals and replace them for firefighters. my colleague from texas mentioned the great investments in next-generation tax breaknologies, senators hickenlooper, rosen, moran, thune, and wicker advancing drone technology so that the united states can compete on a world stage and providing next-generation research for companies like universal hydron and zero row avia. who are making great products. also senators thune and warner

for the creation of a regulatory path for drones to operate beyond the visual line of sight. that means, yes, we're going to move forward on how drones are going to start delivering home products to us, and i thank them for their hard work. and senator rosen for her hardwork on a -- hard work on a grant program so that states and local governments using u.s.-manufactured drones that are used in repairing and fixing critical infrastructure. and senator blackburn for her leadership that the faa is not funneling any drone funding to american adversaries. so you can see, mr. president -- you were part of this process. i thank you for your leadership, certainly in expanding capacity airports and getting more flights but also for your great contributions in this legislation on pfas and many other things. this was a committee process. it really was the way the senate

is supposed to work. it really was bipartisan and bicameral and lots of people got their issues addressed. and they got their issues addressed because we had great staff who were willing to accommodate and work hard and implement those legislative ideas. so i want to thank from our team the staff director of the commerce committee, lila helms, melissa port he, rachel devine who came back six or seven months ago to rejoin the congress and literally we would not have this bill today if rachel devine had not rejoined the effort to work on the hill. i thank you, rachel, for your hard work and detain indication. -- and dedication. i want to thank alex simpson and gigi slays, she has been at this so long. she knows every detail of this bill. and i so appreciate it. doug anderson, lou chia

mastrcelo, and amber willette, trisha enright, james burgess, drew hamill and megan tirey for helping us through many phases of this. i also want to thank the detailee from the faa airport office rob hawks and sammy rose who isous in over at the faa. rukia hasam for their hard work. i us will want to thank senator cruz's team because in all of these negotiations, it was critical to not only have a great understanding of faa issues but our colleagues and their priorities and continuing -- it i'm not saying the republicans came up with more amendments but it certainly

felt like that for a long time. it felt like y'all had a lot -- we had a pilot on our side. you had a few pilots on your side. so we processed a lot of amendments. so i, too, want to thank brad grant, nicole, simone, andrew miller, hana hagan and leah mckenna for their work and matt weissman and ben rowsside. and laura bates. we've been through a lot. we have been through a covid crisis and how to manage our aviation system while we were in that crisis. coming out of the covid crisis when we may not have had everything correct in the order of how to keep flights and regain the capacity where we were at. and we certainly know that we have had safety issues and concerns that we need to make a big investment. this legislation is that investment.

in safety standards, in protecting consumers, and advancing a workforce and technology that will allow the united states to be the gold standard in aviation. i thank my colleagues, mr. president. i yield the floor. i yield the floor. >> c-span has been delivering congressional coverage for 45 years. here is a highlight from a key moment. >> something else i saw firsthand, it wasn't a surprise to me but love from you, colleagues, both republican and democrat. i know right after the shooting, we were practicing on the republican side, democrats were practicing too and colleague and friend and arch rival back home in new areas, unfortunately the star of the game too many times

shepherd figured out what hospital i was sent to and got there, probably the first person on the scene. it is baseball uniform to check on me. so many others of you, again, both republican and democrat reached out in ways that i can't express the gratitude and how much it means to me, jennifer and her whole family. it really does show the warm side of congress that very few people get to see. >> c-span, powered by cle >> saturday former president donald trump speaks to voters in a campaign rallyt wildwood, new jersey, our live coverage c-span, c-span now and online at c-span.org. >> sunday on q&a, shares her book master, husband, wife which was awarded the 2024 pulitzer

prize for biography. recalls story and journeyn 1848. >> they are husband and wife enslaved in lincoln, georgia, they do this not with any underground railroad which doesn't reach all the way to the south where they are, deep south in georgia, not by hiding and traveling by night but they go out in the full light of day, the skies as master enslaved with alan posing as the master. >> with her book, master slave, husband, wife, sunday night on c-span's q&a, you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on free c-span now app. >> the senate foreign relations committee held a confirmation