 Legislative Update 7-5-03 My thanks to John Tune who, since I was on leave last week, gave me a pass on the update. It was wonderful to take so much time off with only the occasional email, page or phone call to deal with. If you didn’t make the central region float trip you should have. It was almost the “Gilligan’s Island Trifecta” with no phone (Yeah!) no lights (well maybe battery operated) no motor car (it sat there unused) but it was not without a single luxury. The camaraderie of my fellow NATCA members and a few imbalanced non-NATCA friends we brought along, was a luxury in itself. If leave-bidding time is approaching at your facility, you might want to consider the Friday and Saturday one week after fathers day for next years float. It really is a great time. I’ve been back at work this last week and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly the relaxing tonic of a vacation can wear off, although yesterday (July 4th) was good supplemental chill therapy. I was tempted to call the White House and report I had come across a large cache of weapons of mass destruction but it seems we detonated them all before I could get to a phone. No major injuries or property damage to report. On a related note, go to www.google.com , type in weapons of mass destruction and then click “I’m feeling lucky”. What a classic! Speaking of the White House, they are still actively lobbying against and rattling their veto threat sabers about the anti-privatization language we successfully had inserted into the house and senate versions of FAA reauthorization. Add to them AAAE (the contract tower alliance), the DOT, the FAA, a few major airlines (can anybody say DELTA?), a smattering of business interests who think they can make a buck, and a behind the scenes effort by NavCanada and it becomes more and more remarkable that we were able to engineer this mutiny which included so many Republicans. But that, my brothers and sisters, is your PAC contributions at work. Decisions at the national level to recruit and hire powerful consultants, NATCA employees specializing in legislative affairs, NATCA activists on the NEB, legislative committee and most importantly YOUR EXCEPTIONAL GRASSROOTS EFFORTS AND PAC CONTRIBUTIONS have made this run on paragraph possible. Instead of having to once again to defend ourselves every year; we have been able to take the offensive with a real good chance of putting this to rest for a few years. FAA Reauthorization will now go to conference committee (a select group of senators and congressmen) to iron out the differences in the House and Senate bills. Each bill has language protecting FAA air traffic controllers from privatizing or further contracting out but the Senate bill goes further (thanks to the Lautenberg amendment) by also including many AF system specialists and flight service employees. This will be the major sticking point although we fully expect another attempt to delete the air traffic language as well. If this all remains in the mark up, the bill then goes as before the full house and senate as joint legislation. If passed (and not vetoed by the White House) it will give us a 3 or 4 year (depending on which version) respite from looking down a privatization/contracting out gun barrel every year. We can expect to work on our public relations with user groups and interested parties during that time. The conference markup is scheduled to be complete by mid July. The sooner the better as the longer time drags on, the more time our enemies have to organize another attack on the legislation. To say they are stunned with our victories is an understatement, but some of that has worn off and they are hard at work again against us. No paranoid ramblings here just a verifiable fact. At least as far as the conference markup is concerned, there are no current plans to have a large-scale grassroots effort (although that could change). It is not normally considered proper etiquette during this stage. The full congress vote may be another matter. Either way, rest assured that the NATCA activists and professionals you have working for you are constantly addressing this issue and are quite busy. If your not giving to the PAC then you should know that right now, in live time, your career is depending on the PAC and maybe you should ask your FacRep for a sign up form. Next week I should know who the members of the conference committee will be. Early leaking of possible Senate names tells us that none of the 5 Republicans Senators voted for the Lautenberg amendment, which could make things sticky. If your congressman or Senator did support anti-privatization language a phone or fax to thank them would be a great touch. Take care until next week. Grant Anderson |
