WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today countered President Obama’s rhetoric on singling out the general aviation industry as a way to lower the national deficit, calling his claim completely void of reality.

“Despite the inaccurate claims by my friends on the left that general aviation only serves millionaires and billionaires, these aircraft actually serve as essential business tools for a multitude of U.S. businesses of all shapes and sizes that rely on them to access multiple offices and facilities spread across the nation,” said Roberts. “Sadly, the president is more concerned with increasing the debt ceiling past the 2012 elections than working on a long term solution for solving our financial crisis. He’s also more focused on singling out specific industry sectors in a misguided attempt to score cheap political points.”

Roberts made the comments today during a speech on the Senate floor regarding the president’s numerous remarks to repeal a tax provision on the general aviation industry in an effort to trim the national debt. Roberts also focused on the important role the general aviation industry plays to the Kansas economy.

“Mr. President, it will take courage to put our country’s fiscal house back in order,” Roberts said. “There is no question about that. But it’s absolutely essential for us to do so in a responsible manner, and not by singling out important sectors of industry that have long played an invaluable role in the economic development of both my home state of Kansas and our country as a whole.”

In his speech, Roberts also noted that taking away a tax provision from the General Aviation industry to pay down the debt would only contribute $3 billion dollars of revenue over 10 years. Considering the U.S. borrows roughly $40.35 billion dollars every 10 days, repealing this tax provision would close our national budget deficit for one hour.

You can click here to watch a portion of his speech.

The following is the full text of his prepared speech:

With the national unemployment rate at its highest level all year and the debt ceiling rapidly approaching, you would think the president and members of Congress would do everything they could to support those industries critical for job creation and economic development.

Sadly, the president is more concerned with increasing the debt ceiling past the 2012 elections than working on a long term solution for solving our financial crisis. He’s also more focused on singling out specific industry sectors in a misguided attempt to score cheap political points.

Since negotiations began last month on raising the debt limit, President Obama has on multiple occasions singled out the general aviation industry as an example of a “big” business that only serves the wealthy and should contribute more to lowering the deficit. The only problem with this claim is that it’s completely devoid of reality.

Despite the inaccurate claims by my friends on the Left that general aviation only serves millionaires and billionaires, these aircraft actually serve as essential business tool for a multitude of U.S. businesses of all shapes and sizes that rely on them to access multiple offices and facilities spread across the nation.

Understanding that managers, sales teams and technical experts are often required to visit numerous offices in a short amount of time, and in regions of the U.S. that aren’t served by large airports, general aviation is sometimes their only option. In fact, 90% of our country’s airports aren’t accessible by commercial aircraft.

Beyond its essential use as a business tool, general aviation employs over 1.2 million workers, and annually contributes $150 billion to the U.S. economy.

Just last year, general aviation delivered 1,334 planes valued at $7.9 billion, with well over half attributed to exports – a number that supports President Obama’s goal of doubling U.S. exports over the next five years.

Like every other business sector, general aviation has struggled during the recession. Unfortunately, this has resulted in layoffs among the many high skilled, high paying jobs in this industry.

To help offset these job losses and incentivize the purchase of these aircraft, Democratic members included a provision in the 2009 stimulus bill to accelerate the depreciation schedules for a wide range of capital investments, including general aviation aircraft. The positive impact was easily quantifiable.

For example, at Kansas based Cessna, accelerated depreciation was a key factor in a majority of customer buying decisions, and as a result, Cessna and its suppliers were able to keep 1000 jobs that would otherwise have been lost.

So it comes as a pretty big shock that President Obama that Democratic members in both chambers of congress would directly attack this industry with talks of repealing a tax provision that has contributed positively to job creation in a time of severe economic downturn.

On top of this, budget negotiators are considering implementing onerous user fees on general aviation as a way to generate revenue. Let me be very clear, if user fees on general aviation are implemented, we could very well see the beginning of the end for this critically important U.S. industry.

With all that’s going on, what on earth is a laid off general aviation manufacturer supposed to think?

The need to get serious about spending and our deficit is essential, but I also believe it makes sense to only consider those provisions that would actually have a measurable impact on reducing our more than $14 trillion dollar national debt.

Unfortunately, the Democrats proposal to change the depreciation schedules for corporate jets would only contribute $3 billion dollars of revenue over 10 years.

Considering that the U.S. borrows a little less than $40.35 billion dollars every 10 days, repealing this tax provision would close our national budget deficit for one hour. I repeat: one hour. That seems like a pretty nominal solution to scaling down our spending levels.

Sadly, this isn’t even the first time the Democrats have singled out the general aviation industry for punitive tax treatment.

In the 1990 budget deal, Democrats created a new luxury excise tax that applied to yachts, aircraft, jewelry, and furs; coming into effect the next year.

The tax was repealed in 1993, because, as the Democratic-controlled Senate Finance Committee report explained: "During the recent recession, the boat, aircraft, jewelry, and fur industries have suffered job losses and increased unemployment. The committee believes that it is appropriate to eliminate the burden these taxes impose in the interests of fostering economic recovery in those and related industries.”

I couldn’t agree more, Mr. President.

Now if singling out general aviation for punitive tax treatment and user fees alone wasn’t bad enough, I would like to now focus on “Part Two of the Administration’s Assault on the General Aviation Industry”; specifically, the recent proposal by the Department of Transportation to revoke the Blocked Aircraft Registration Request Program (BARR).

Back in 2000, and in response to the proliferation of for-profit flight tracking technology, Congress included a provision in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization bill that created a program to provide owners of general aviation aircraft the ability to prevent public access to their personal movements.

Easy enough, right?

You’re a citizen or company who for reasons of security, privacy, or competitiveness wish to keep private the movements of your vehicle.

Just like citizens traveling in their cars have every right to believe that their whereabouts won’t be disclosed to anyone who has tracking technology.

This program sounds like a no brainer to me.

Well, “not so fast” according to a recent decision by the FAA.

This past March, the federal government issued a notice in the Federal Register that it would severely cut back the BARR program to only apply to those individuals with a known and specific security threat.

Even more troubling, the reasons given by the administration to limit application of the BARR program are completely without warrant.

It argues that scaling back the BARR program is necessary to prevent criminals from smuggling drugs and weapons into the U.S. by private aircraft.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The BARR program already allows the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies to track the location of users of the national airspace system.

BARR simply prevents unauthorized, non-governmental actors from knowing the location of private citizens.

The administration also claimed that its decision to scale back BARR was necessary for reasons of greater transparency.

While I think every citizen is supportive of greater transparency in what goes on in our government, I think it’s a gross misstatement to confuse transparency with a blatant invasion of an individual’s right to privacy.

Publishing the movements of general aviation airplanes, against citizens’ will, flies in the face of the government’s traditional role in protecting private information, including highway EZ pass movements, GPS use, tax returns and medical files.

This action would set a dangerous precedent that could jeopardize private citizens’ personal information and movements across the country.

If the proposed changes are put in place, anyone with a computer and easily accessible tracking technology can stalk general aviation aircraft users.

For this reason, I along with a bi-partisan group of 25 other senators sent a letter to Secretary Ray LaHood expressing our strong opposition to this blatant violation of citizens’ right to privacy and demanding that he reconsider his decision.

In addition, a diverse group of associations including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Roundtable, and the American Civil Liberties Union have expressed concern about the FAA’s proposal.

In closing, Mr. President, it will take courage to put our country’s fiscal house back in order. There is no question about that.

But it’s absolutely essential for us to do so in a responsible manner, and not by singling out important sectors of industry that have long played an invaluable role in the economic development of both my home state of Kansas and our country as a whole.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor and notice the absence of a quorum.

 

-30-