Don Young

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley).

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Aviation.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to note, in the bipartisan way that we have conducted ourselves, that the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) has never voted with me on any piece of legislation in any committee. But this is a time we work together, and I thank the gentleman for his statement.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes) for the purposes of a colloquy.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my good friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter), the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Committee on Ways and Means be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 2891) to preserve the continued viability of the United States air transportation system, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Good or bad.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Young.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I am hoping the House leadership will follow the lead of the Chair of the committee and the ranking member. We work very closely, and I am confident that they will. If they do not, it is not going to come back.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and out of respect to the Speaker, he is not too quick when it comes to picking up when the gentleman yielded to me. I would also say just one thing. What bothers me most about this debate is what we are thinking about is the time frame. If we do not do something tonight and the market opens up Monday, I want everybody to think about this, we are hoping and I am praying because I have been through about four of these and some of you have not, being one of the seniors Members of this House. When most of the American people come back and, in fact, believe in America and the faith of America and will not drop the stock market. I have watched this. Check the Gulf War. Check World War II. Check the Korean war and the Vietnam. I have been all through them. I believe the American people will, in fact, stand up and say yes we are willing to invest; but I will tell you what will happen. We have airline industry on the verge of collapse, and if we do not lay down a mark in the sand and say, yes, we are willing, because of action of our government to back up those airline industries to allow some moneys, they will start going down and every other stock will start following it. Keep that in mind. Keep in mind what I am saying here. I may be wrong, I hope I am wrong, but if you do not pass this tonight, and Thursday when we have a crash, I hope that those who object to this understand what I am saying because you have created it.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Cut that out.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. And I told him if you want a new piece of legislation, go for it. But you cannot do it tonight. And we are going to recess tonight.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. You bet I did, and I will do it again. But I am going to suggest one thing on this thing. What he suggested, that means a new piece of legislation. I go back to what I have said again and again. I will say it again. We are looking at a time frame. I will admit, the Senate is not going to act, but that stock market opens Monday. If we do not have an assurance that these airlines are going to be taken care of in the sense they lost because we tell them they had to sit down, they are going down and the stock market will go down with them. Let us talk about legislation later on, but let us think about tonight. Let us not think about 3 weeks down there, 4 weeks down there, but tonight and Monday. After Monday, we have got Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and the Senate goes back in. If they do not want to do this, fine. But let us give them some line that the House of the people is backing it up and not going to let these airlines go down. And they will go down if we do not do this.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. I gave you an answer. I agree with your language. We support your language. We talked about this today. The gentleman from Florida knows me. I have never backed out on my word. I may take your money, but I will do it up front. I am not going to take it behind you.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. If the gentleman will yield, without getting myself in trouble, I have agreed to your language.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. He clarified it.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. I agree with that. I have been saying that for the last 15 minutes.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. And I agree.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, by the time we go to conference, if our airlines are not flying, it does not mean anything. By the time we go to conference, we will know whether this system works. That is what I am suggesting. This is an emergency. My friends, this is not every day. Mr. Speaker, I have followed this industry from the bottom of my heart for more than 10 years, and we are in serious trouble. If my colleagues do not understand where we are today, we have serious problems. I will commit as the chairman, if they are viable, everything is working well, then we have a commitment to make sure that they achieve the goals of having the commerce capability. I am not trying to take money out of an appropriation. I never have.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. If the gentleman would continue to yield, I am trying to say that we will do everything we can to protect the request of the gentleman from Florida. I cannot predict what the Senate is going to do.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I am sure the gentleman from Florida will be involved with it. I am sure the gentleman will be sitting beside me.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, it is my intention, as I explained to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), that is exactly what we are trying to do.