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Rep. Richardson Visits NATCA EWP
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
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She is currently on the House Committee on Transportation, as well as serving
on its Aviation subcommittee. She is also on the Committee on Homeland
Security, and its subcommittee on Cyber Security, Infrastructure Protection,
and Security Technologies. Richardson is only the 26th African-American female,
and the 239th female, to serve in the U.S. Congress.
For almost two hours, Richardson visited and shared lunch and conversation with
NATCA and its guests in the Engineers' Western Pacific Regional Office. She
spoke of the great personal gratitude she feels towards the labor movement,
noting that her mother’s union membership was a significant factor in her
personal success. Her white mother and her African-American father divorced
when she was only two, during the height of the Civil Rights struggle of the
1960’s. She stated that, had her mother not been a member of a strong union group
that provided guaranteed benefits to members “regardless of what their kids
looked like,” she and her sister would never have had the healthy and positive
childhood they did.
The congresswoman feels she has been “standing on the shoulders” of the union
movement. While discussing the economy, she reminded others they must support
the people “who make the economy move.” In fact, holding true to these beliefs,
she herself is a current member of the Machinists’ union, having joined in
affiliation as a member of the Long Beach City Council. She mentioned
that although she is not sure there has ever been a machinist in the Congress
before; she is the only one there now.
Rep. Richardson’s visit coincided with the onslaught of this year’s tower
incidents. She spoke of the need for a full and honest investigation of the
incident. She stated air safety is of personal interest to her as she flies at
least twice a week, and is concerned about the staffing issues regarding
tower personnel, including appropriate career experience. In addition, she said
that NATCA’s outstanding overall record of safety should not be forgotten. She
also supports the Passenger Facility Charge to increase available funds for
tower improvements.
A key phase that Richardson used throughout her speech was “getting it right.”
She repeatedly said that the “worse thing a legislator can do” is be uninformed
of issues impacted by their decision making. Ms. Richardson praised Samad
for his diligence and responsiveness to her inquiries, and encouraged all
members present to contact her office if they see instances where her influence
might be able to help in one transportation matter or another. She
requested input from NATCA members that would help her to ask the right
questions --to “get people on the record, and to put the right things
on the record.”
Richardson had high praise for DOT Secretary Ray LaHood, with whom she has a
very good relationship. She said that those in the FAA are lucky to
be working under Transportation Secretary LaHood. She continued on to state
that even when he was a legislator from the other side of the aisle, Mr. LaHood
was recognized as one of the “go to” folks who can work between two opposing
sides. In this respect in particular, she said Mr. LaHood “definitely gets it
right.”
In the question and answer session following her town hall remarks, she
expressed concern about the attacks on the collective bargaining rights of
government employees. In response to a request concerning a specific funding
need, Richardson shared that, while there can be no "earmarks’ per
se," and there will not be another stimulus bill, funding will be
available on the administrative side. She encouraged attendees to contact her
for a letter of support if they saw a need within the department. In response
to a question concerning shortened timeframes that have been caused by funding
delays, the representative informed that, if she is given specifics,
it is possible to arrange reasonable extensions of individual project funding
timeframes.
Richardson took a pointed question concerning the increase in current wartime
expenditures overseas. She responded that, while she supports our troops
and has visited both Afghanistan and Iraq, she feels the money spent on
overseas wars would be better spent here. She mentioned that in the aftermath
of the Japan quake and tsunami it became better known that none of the
hospitals in the LA area have been retrofitted to withstand a 9.0 earthquake.
"We are not preparing our children properly who want to do math," she
stated. “We need to fund programs that will help our kids become engineers.”
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Richardson said that the National Surface Transportation
Commission has projected yearly requirements for 255 billion to support the transportation
infrastructure, while only about 180 billion can be allocated. This will
probably lead to more private/public partnerships, such as toll roads. She
noted that President Obama wants to promote efficient high speed rail
transportation as an enduring legacy of his administration. She said
that the way individuals are charged for road use will probably be adjusted
in the future to reflect “miles traveled” (people who travel more miles will
be charged more for registration). |
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Following her talk and the Q&A session, Richardson wrapped up the visit
with lunch and informal conversation with the BUEs. She took a brief tour of
the recently-revamped Operations Center in the Regional Office, and visited the
Office’s Control Tower simulator (above) that is used for training. Richardson
promised to come back, and invited individuals to visit her in Washington.
"Representative Richardson provides NATCA with key support on the
Transportation Committee, and it is our great fortune to have her live and work
in Southern California, so close at hand to the area’s LAX, John Wayne and Long
Beach Airports," shares Samad.