Commerce Chairman: ‘I Don’t Know Why’ Democrats Did Not Pass Permanent FAA Funding

August 05, 2011
By Nicholas Ballasy

(CNSNews.com) – Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee said he does not know why the Democrats did not pass a permanent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill when they controlled Congress.

“Yeah, I mean, so what do you want me to say? We didn’t do it. No, we didn’t do it,” Rockefeller told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday.

“Do you think it was because we didn’t care? No, it’s just – I don’t know why we didn’t do it but we didn’t do it. We’re dealing now with the present and we have gone from 210 issues at contention down to — thanks to Kay Bailey Hutchinson and some others, mostly staff work — down to only 12 issues – 12 issues meaning that this huge federal aviation system can work if we resolve them.”