I suppose the best way to relate what has happened, and is happening, is to put this in to context starting with some recent historical prospective.  For those of you activists who can recite this series of events in your sleep I apologize, but others still do not seem to know the story and maybe you could ensure that they read this.  Be forewarned though that the moral of this story is going to be that, starting again on Monday, your leadership will once more be imploring you to call the 1-866-I-FLY-SAFE number.  As tedious as this may seem, and not to diminish our appreciation of all you have done so far, it is critical you do so again for us to win this fight.  You might want to have a PAC form handy for the end of this update as well.

1. June 2002:  The Bush Administration amends an executive order stripping air traffic control of its “inherently governmental” designation.

2. November 2002: White House officials leak a plan to privatize 850,000 federal jobs.

3. February 2003:  The FAA's FAIR Activity Inventory designating air traffic control as a "commercial activity" is officially released.  This is the first time that the FAA designates air traffic control as anything other than an "inherently governmental" function.  Administrator Blakey claims there are no plans for further privatization or “significant” expansion of contracting out.

4.  April-June 2003:  Administrator Blakey actively lobbies Capitol Hill and industry leaders against a bi-partisan initiative in both houses of Congress aimed at reversing the FAA's "commercial" designation of air traffic control functions.  The intent of the legislation is to ensure the air traffic control functions are NOT privatized.  Administrator Blakey claims again that there are no plans for further privatization or “significant” expansion of contracting out.

5.  June 2003:  The House voted 418 to 8 to approve its version of the FAA bill that included language that prevents privatization of air traffic controllers.

6.  June 2003: The Senate voted 56-41 (with three Democrats absent) to approve Senator Lautenberg of New Jersey's amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Bill that would provide protection from privatization for air traffic controllers, flight service station personnel and the workers who install and maintain air traffic control equipment. The Senate later voted 94-0 to approve the full FAA bill, with the anti-privatization language included. 

7.  July 2003: The Congressional Conference Committee, chaired by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), met to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the FAA bill. Under pressure from the White House, the committee abandoned the House and Senate-approved language that prohibited air traffic control privatization forever. Instead, they inserted language that protects ATC for only four years. Worse, the language gave the FAA the green light to contract out 71 towers -- with the exception of the two from Alaska, Chairman Young's home state. The backroom deal in the conference committee was done without a vote or accountability. According to press accounts, for the first time ever, no member of the minority party (Democrats, in this case) signed the conference committee report language.  Administrator Blakey continues to claim that there are no plans for privatization or “significant” expansion of contracting out. 

8. July-October 2003:  The House leadership avoids brining the FAA reauthorization conference bill to the floor because they do not have the votes. 

9. October 2003:  Abandoning all pretense that the ideology of privatizing air traffic control is good for the public, John Mica, chairman of the aviation subcommittee, starts offering Republican lawmakers exemptions to contracting out for the towers in their districts in exchange for them removing their opposition to the bill.  This fails to garner enough votes for passage. 

10.  Last Tuesday:  The House votes unanimously to recommit FAA reauthorization back to conference instructing the conference committee to meet and fix the objectionable portions of the bill.  This was the first time a bill was sent back to conference at least since the Republicans gained control of the House. 

11.  Wednesday: No conference meeting ever takes place.  An obviously pre-written conference report with the language in section 230 referring to the contracting of the 69 towers deleted but section 105 offering more legal authority to privatize all of ATC, an even worse outcome for us. 

Which brings us to Thursday.  The new but unimproved conference bill went to the floor for debate and a vote.  The next four paragraphs I will shamelessly plagiarize from Pat Forrey’s update since he said it better than I ever could.

I think most have heard that the FAA Reauthorization Conference Report was passed by the House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 211 to 207, after a prolonged and valiant effort by members of the Democratic Party to send the Bill back to conference. And many of our friends on the republican side of the aisle held their ground (and integrity) by voting against this bastardization of the democratic process, most didn't... If you didn't see any of the debate on CSPAN, you missed some very compelling statements by our allies. At one point, Congressman DeFazio screamed at Congressman Mica for insinuating that the opposition was merely standing their ground for their special interests groups who gave money to their PAC's.... DeFazio screamed, "you should be taken down for those comments..." as the sound faded to silence, and the debate was suspended. It left me thinking that either DeFazio was having a heart attack, or a brawl was beginning to break out on the House floor. In reality, some staffer was running around the Capitol building dressed in a Halloween costume and carrying a plastic weapon...

I think it's just incredible to all of us that both chambers of Congress overwhelmingly passed Bills prohibiting the privatization of air traffic control, yet this fight has culminated in removing language that does the complete opposite! And now we are left with what we had prior to those two Bills passing in the House and Senate... no protection at all; the administration can start to contract out immediately after the Senate passes the Bill and the President signs it. Furthermore, section 105 changes the statute (Title 49) allowing a "private entity" to contract an air traffic facility. This will be very damaging in our lawsuit against the FAA, and I'm sure, a hill that our colleague Marion was and is prepared to die on. Talk about dirty politics? This is one great example of why the American public is so apathetic and distrustful with Washington and politicians...

BUT IT'S NOT OVER YET!!!! There is a very good chance that Senator Lautenberg will perform a filibuster when the Conference report hits the Senate floor. This will preclude the Senate from acting on a vote until he gives up the floor (once recognized). The operative motive is to get the Senate to reconsider the conference report and send it back to conference, where the anti privatization language can be reinstated into the Bill. Otherwise, the Senate cannot act on any other legislation. SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?????

We need every member to call 1-866-I-FLY-SAFE from the time you read this message until the time there is a resolution to this Bill, telling your Senators (democrats and republicans) that you want them to vote NO on the Conference report for Vision 100, the FAA Reauthorization Bill. Tell them you want the report sent back to conference to reinstate anti privatization language back into the Bill. Know this as well... our consultants are reprogramming the 866 number, so the line may take you to a House members office. If that happens, you can either thank the member for their support, tell them how disappointed you are (if they voted for passage), or you can tell them you have the wrong number and call the Senate offices directly; we should have this problem corrected by Monday at the latest. In any event, call the Senator's office and make sure your spouse, significant other, parents, grandparents, godparents, friends, and neighbors call too...

The situation we are seeing is a classic... the vast majority of our Congressional representatives do not want to see the privatization of ATC. But because we have an oligarchy running this country, many will bend to follow party lines. The amount of arm twisting, and out and out threats made to many of our representatives on the republican side of the isle by their leadership is astounding. This is no exaggeration... representatives who are going to be in tight elections next year were told they could expect no help from the GOP if they voted against the President's wishes; many were told that funding they wanted for their districts was not going to be there unless they voted for passage of this Conference report. Indeed, there are significant benefits to aviation and our country in this Bill, and the leadership is using that hammer to force members into siding with the administration. Unfortunately, the result is a bastardization of separation of powers among the three branches of government, which was set up to stop this type of tyranny... So think about who you vote for next time around; a divided government surely produces a moderate result and small change, but the benefits of fair participation and democracy will always outweigh extremism.

Okay I’m back and I am saddened to say that none of the Republican members of congress from the states in the central region voted against this bill.  It’s hard to articulate the amount of pressure being applied to moderate Republicans to vote to ensure that the authority to do something that the administration claims they have no intention of doing remains in this bill, and the Republicans that did vote their conscience did so at great political peril.  Anyone with half a gnat’s brain can see the White House is very serious about coming after us.

So we need you to call 1-866-I-FLY-SAFE more this week.  The Senate Republicans will be under tremendous pressure as well and your calls not only let them know how their constituents feel (the very essence of grassroots activism) but also help provide them with political cover to go against the threats of the White House and the their own leadership.  Unfortunately, being on the side of right is not enough and they need your help with this.  All of the calls you have previously made were not directed at this phase of the process and you need to call often and encourage others to do so as well.

In closing I want to express my thanks for the help that many of you have given to this most important issue in our Unions history.  Even if there is not immediate action in contracting or privatizing, a loss on this will embolden the FAA administration in their efforts to sabotage our contract, working conditions and reclass pay.  Calling this number as asked is the smallest request for activism and will take about three to six minutes of your day to cover both of your Senators (we especially need help in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas).  But if you still can’t bring yourself to that small level of action I will say that although I can’t fathom your reasoning I will respect your opinion with one small caveat.  If we lose this and some or all of the potential negatives become reality I would ask that you show some respect to your brothers and sisters who did fight, and not grumble or carp about how bad things are.  Not one damn word!  For it will be in no small part your fault it has occurred and frankly you won’t have the right to complain. 

If any body wants to take a more active role or needs to find a PAC form or just wants more info, talk to your FacRep or legislative rep(s) or if that doesn’t work, contact John or me directly and we’ll be happy to help.

Grant Anderson
ganderson@natca.org
1-800-266-0895 pin #50501