anytime at c-span.org/history. ♪ cooks "new york times" is reporting independent presidenti candidate robert f kennedy jr. disclosed in a 22 deposition he suffedrom short-term memory loss as well as oer cognitive issues due to a parasite that had eaten a part of his brain before dyinghe article goes on toay in the interview with the times, said he had recovedrom that memory loss and fogginess had no aftereffects of the parasite what she said had not required treatment. asked last week if any o mr. kenny'health issues could compromise hisitness for the presidency? stephanie spiro spokesperson for the kennedy campaign till the times that is a hilarious suggestion given the competition.

as noted senate helicopters work on an extension of federal aviation administration programs, currently they expire on friday. next virginia democratic senator tim kaine talks about the faa reauthorization legislation, and why he opposes parts of the bill. senator cain was one of the ten senators to vote against beginning debate on the measure. >> madam president i rise today, certain by now some of the staff have million rised speech i'm about to give because it's the third time that i will have given it in the last two weeks

on a topic that is very important to virginia the faa reauthorization, though, now pending before the body. i want to thank chairwoman camp well ranking member cruz because as a general matter this is a necessary bill with a lot of good provisions in it and particular the work on air traffic control recruitment and training and pilot training hours i feel very good about that work that's been done. but the jest of this bill to promote air safety and there's one provision in the bill that is dramatically contrary to the thrust of this bill and reduce air safety and reduce air safety in the capitol of the united states at reagan national airport otherwise known as dca. i want to summarize quickly the arguments that i made the last couple of weeks but then i want to respond to at least three,

you know, questions that folks who take a position opposite to me have raised and use some data to demonstrate that those questions honestly raised have answers and the answers actually verify uphold the position that my mail-in and virginia colleagues should not be jams flights on the business gist runway in the united states dca built a long time ago 860 acres. by -- order of comparison dallas airport is about 12,000 acres, dallas-fort worth is about 19,000 acres denver is 32,000 acres. when reagan national was built, it was a little bit the trend to build these smaller airports near downtowns, because the airplanes were smaller, an they were props. with fewer passengers and they were lighter and they didn't need as much landing runway space to take off for land. when reagan national was built

on this 860 acres if you've been there you know that it is 860 that can't be expanded surrounded on three sides by water on the other side by u.s. not by u.s. but by the george washington parkway no way to expand this it was built with three runways primary and two commuter runways and the estimate was and 1960s that reagan national with the three runways could accommodate 15 million passengers a year. 15 million passengers year. well, where we today, circa 224 reagan nationalto is now 25.5 million passengers year 25.5 million passengers an additional two-thirds over what it was built for on a landlocked -- runways. there's been a couple of other important changes at reagan national. the idea was to spread the 15 million passengers over three

runways but that was when the planes weren smaller and they were props. now, they're jets and they can't land on the shorter runways. sons today at reagan national 9% of the traffic in to reagan national has to use the main runway so think about this. if it was 15 million equally divide then each runway would bring in 5 million passengers year. now, the main runway doesn't have 5 million but it has 22 and a half million with 3 and a half to a million other the other two runways there's been another major change since projection of 15 million a year was made that is 9/11 and in the aftermath of 9/11 we imposed dramatically security requirements requiremer patternsnt over reagan national make it much harder to get into a landing zone to land or to take off. so what does that mean?

built for 15 and a half million on a land lock spot now at 25 million what does it mean? well it means that the main runway at reagan national is now the single busiest runway in the united states reagan national because it is small it is not the busiest airport in the united states only 19th in ters of the total passengers in and out. but that main runway with 90% of the traffic is the busiest runway in the united states. and what does that mean what does it mean to have one primary runway witho 90% of the traffic that's the busiest in the united states that is easy to predict it means very significant congestion so let me give you some stats about that. reagan as the 19th busiest airport in the united states has the 8th most daily delay. you calculate daily delay by the percentages of incoming and outgoing that are delayed, multiply it by the average delay.

more than 20% of flights into and out of reagan national are delayed. they're not delayed by a little. there are some airports that have worse on time records but the delay is a little bit of delay. the average delay of flights in and out of reagan national once delayed is 67 minutes already. that accounts to over 11,000 minutes of the delay every day. and what does delay mean? it means okay you're light arriving or late taking off. but because if you're taking off you might be trying to make a connecting flight that also means you take off late you're likely to miss your connecting flight or -- if you'reil coming in late and e plane is supposed to leave to take some people out and go somewhere else, the delay cascadings down and it affects the entire system. delay isn't the only measure of this airports congestion a second one is the number of canceled flights.

now, some airports have cancelations, i mean, maybe madison weather is not so great. or anchorage or windy city or minneapolis. dca has the third worst cancelation rate among these airports it is not because of weather. the weather here in d.c. may not be great but it is not catastrophic either. the delay is a function of congestion. here's another measure -- planes that get that are landing, thatpl upon land having to get rerouted into a looping pattern dca is third worst in that what does that matter? well first -- it creates delay. habut second, if you're looping planes through a constricted air space as planes are taking off and landing every minute you're increasing the risk of accident. so by all of these measures delay -- average daily delay, cancelations, looping patterns, this airport built for 15 million now at 25 million has

serious problems already. already before you add anymore flights to it . the problems are more than just delay. the problems are also safety. we're all experienced folks and we know on roads the more congested road the more likely an accident. roads that are lightly traveled less likely to have accident. roads that are more heavily traveled, more likely to have accidents. i've talked about this before i had a chance to play the air traffic control tape for colleagues of mine. i can't do that on the floor of the senate. but about two weeks ago, there was a plane maneuvering on the mainfl runway to take off and another plane trying to go to another smaller runway to take off and almost collided the frantic voice of the air traffic controller heard shouting stop, stop -- and these planes ended up stopping within 300 feet of each other inside a hundred yards of each other at this superbusy airport thank god a collision and a catastrophe was averted. but more and more planes on this

busiest runway in the united states is just going increase the chance of a significant incident. don't take my word for it. [laughter] even though senators i know we like think k we're experts about everything. there are experts in this -- the federal aviation administration and the metropolitan washington authority what does the faa say about this? ththey point of point out statie given you come from the faa a senate proposal that would add ten flights into reagan national. that's called five slots each slot is a flight in and a flight out a total of ten more flights a day. what is the faa say about it? they've given the committee and that they've given same set of data what they say is you can't even add one flight in without increasing delay which is already significant. but if you add ten five slots,

the delay will increase by 7 51 minutes day there are already more than if you take the flights delayed and multiply by minutes they're delayed.he adding five slots ten flights will add to that, 751 additional minutes of delay, 751 minutes that make people delay that jeopardize their ability to get a connection that cause cascading delay, in the other airports which are going to maybe be the recipients of planes taig off from reagan national that's what the faa charged with -- the safe and efficient operation american air space is telling the united states senate.lling metropolitan washington airports authority, congress created it and the late 1980s congress appoints its board and charges it with the operation not only of reagan national but also the

dallas airport. what does in-law says, in-law says stop, stop don't add anymore flights because delay is already unacceptable and if you jam more flights, on to the busiest runway in the united states you raise the safety risk. now again, we senators like think we know a lot. we don't know as much about efficient andfi air traffic operations asnd the federal aviation administration. we don't know as much as the metropolitan washington -- airports administration. so -- when the delay statistics already point out that this is unacceptable -- when the cancelation and looping into loops statistics are dangerous, when we've had a near collision as a flash warning signal in our face before the vote when the faa is saying you keapght vote one flight in without increasing what is acceptable delay and when the

metropolitan authority voices don't do this. why would we do this? why would we do this? thes, senators from the region o have the most at stake stand uniform senators cardin, warren and iie opposed to the slot increase that is in the senate bill pending force and we have a amendment that would strip those five slots ten flights out so that we don't make this worse. since i last occured on the floor to talk about this last week, colleagues have come up to me with some questions and methey've raised three. here's one. dca is undercapacity because dca was approved for more than a thousand flights a day in the 1960s and there's only 890 flights in and out today so therefore there must be more capacity at dca. those who ask that question are stating a truth. dca was approved for over a

thousand flights a day in the 1960s. when most of the flights have props, not just -- when most of the craft were smaller -- and had fewer passengers, and could take off and land on shorter runways. so yes in the aviation world of the 1960s dca was approved over a thousand flights. but in the aviation world of 2024 where it is jets with more passengers to take more time to land and take off, that -- isn't that relevant. it is not that relevant and, in fact, another change that's happened it's important that i alluded to earlier is we were set up for a thousand in and out more than a thousand in and out in the 1960s well 9/11 happened since then. and after 9/11, thank god -- we've imposed much more stringent criteria on air traffic overt d.c. region that capital, pentagon, white house, congress, to makegi sure that there are challenges in the air

space to lead to serious harm and risk to people on planes and people who live in the area. and so the faa has said, you're right. we did approve a higher capacity in the 1960s. but the changes in the numbers, size, of planes -- has constricted them to the one runway and changes in the air space made it harder and that's why even though we're not at the capacity that was established in the 1960s you can't even put one more flight one more flight into dca would expanding delay that's the first argument.e yeah of the 1960s was different 2024 is a completely different kettle of fish you shouldn't be jamming flights on to this runway the second thing is dca has pretty good on time percentage. not bad delay. good on time percentage. and it is true if you just look at the percentage of planes that land or takeoff on time. dca is better than some airports

now it is sad to say that -- 20 plus percent of our flights are better than in and out and those are better than some others but here's what you've got to know which airport would you feel more -- you know comfortable flying into it? one with a -- 80% on time record? but where the average delay and that 20% was 67%? or what if you with a worse on time record and average time was 8 minutes, 67 minutes is a hassle it means a misconnection 67 minutes means cascading delay throughout the system. threeem minutes or ten minutes doesn't. and so -- just lookingus at on time percentage didn't give you the full picture of this airport. and that'sll why the faa measurs the delay not in on time percentage. but in total daily delay.

and based on that measure, dca is not a high performer it is already a poor performer we shouldn't add to it. the last thing i'll say and then madam president i would yield to other colleagues and some justified between some airlines. you know yiepghted like it is one way delta likes it another some other airlines aren't expressing their position who cares about them. who cares about the airlines? we ought to care about safety. we ought to care about passengers -- we ought to care about the 25 and a half million people that are using this -- dca airport on an annual basis and we ought to weigh that 25 and a half million a lot heavier than a couple of dozen people in the senate who would like to have more convenience on flights in the dca. and this is ultimately about the senate because as i have said to my colleagues, the house took up the same issue in the faa

reauthorization bill and in the committee, they chose not to jam more flights into dca. and then when the bill was on the floor, someone tried to make the amendment that's the same amendment that's before today say add ten slots ten flights and house rejected it. so this is not a battle with the house. the house is -- accepted the advocacy of the faa and regional delegation they've paid heed to the potential impacts on delay and cancelations and even potential collisions. they've said we're not going to run this risk. the last thing we want is for there to be something bad happen out at that airport and people stick a mic in our face say you knew this and warned and voted for it anyway. so the house rejected this. and what senator warren and i and senator van hollen and four

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