The Vice President: Secretary Chao, Leader McCarthy,
Chairman Bill Shuster,
Senator Ted Cruz, distinguished members
of Congress, honored guests, on behalf of the First Family,
welcome to the White House.
(Applause.)
And thanks to the leadership
of President Donald Trump, welcome to the beginning
of a new era for American infrastructure.
(Applause.)
You know, since the first day of this administration,
President Trump has been working tirelessly to keep the promises
that he made to the American people.
Our President has been putting jobs
and this economy first, rolling back excessive regulations,
unleashing American energy,
ending unfair trade practices, and he's been working
with Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare.
And thanks to President Donald Trump, America is back.
(Applause.)
American businesses are growing and investing in America again.
More than 600,000 private sector jobs have been created
under this President's leadership,
and unemployment hasn't been this low for 16 years.
But if you haven't already noticed, the American people
also elected a builder to be the 45th President
of the United States, and this week, starting today,
this President will take
historic steps to keep his promise to rebuild America.
(Applause.)
Promising to replace our crumbling infrastructure
with new roads, bridges and tunnels and airports,
the action the President announces today
will encourage investment, commerce,
and most importantly, President Trump's action
today will enhance the safety and precision
of our air travel in the United States.
And as I can attest from firsthand experience,
having more precise landings in America
is a good thing.
(Applause.)
So, with gratitude for his leadership and vision,
and with admiration for his unwavering determination
to rebuild America and restore a nation of opportunity
and prosperity, it is now my high honor
and distinct privilege
to introduce to you
the President of the United States of America,
President Donald Trump.
(Applause.)
The President: Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mike.
I really appreciate everything
and I appreciate you being here.
But I especially want to thank Secretary Elaine Chao,
Leader Kevin McCarthy -- thank you, Kevin --
Chairman Bill Shuster -- thank you
very much, Bill -- and all the members of Congress --
we have many of them here today -- for joining us
as we prepare to enter a great new era
in American aviation.
(Applause.)
It's about time, too, I can tell you.
But before discussing our plans to modernize air travel,
I want to provide an update on our efforts
to fix and modernize vital services for our veterans --
our great, great veterans who we all love.
For decades, the federal government has struggled
to accomplish something that should be very, very simple --
seamlessly transferring a veteran's medical records
from the Defense Department
to the veterans groups and to the VA.
In recent years, it has taken not just days
or weeks, but many months for the records to follow
the veteran.
This has caused massive problems for our veterans.
I'm very proud to say that we are finally taking steps
to solve this situation once and for all.
Secretary Shulkin announced this morning
that the VA will announce and modernize its medical records
to use the same system as the Department of Defense.
No more complications.
The records will now be able to follow the veteran
when they leave service -- meaning faster, better,
and far better quality care.
(Applause.)
This is one of the biggest wins for our veterans in decades.
And I congratulate Secretary Shulkin
for making this very, very important decision.
Thank you, Secretary.
Appreciate it.
I appreciate it.
He's done a great job.
Stand up, Secretary.
Where is Secretary Shulkin?
What a great job.
Thank you.
Of course, there is still much work to do,
but today's action shows the determined leadership
and what it can accomplish -- great, great reform.
So, again, to David Shulkin, thank you.
To all of our veterans who have a served this nation,
a very, very special thank you.
This is truly wonderful, really monumental reform,
so important for our veterans.
But it's just the beginning.
We're here today to discuss another issue
that has gone unsolved for far too long.
For too many years, our country has tolerated
unacceptable delays at the airport, long wait times
on the tarmac, and a slowing of commerce
and travel that costs us billions and billions
of dollars in lost hours and lost dollars themselves.
Today, we are proposing to take American air travel
into the future -- finally.
(Applause.)
Finally, right?
Finally.
It's been a long time.
We're proposing reduced wait times, increased
route efficiency, and far fewer delays.
Our plan will get you where you need to go more
quickly, more reliably, more affordably and, yes --
for the first time in a long time -- on time.
We will launch this air travel revolution
by modernizing the outdated system of air traffic control.
It's about time.
(Applause.)
Since the early days of commercial air service,
the federal government has owned
and operated the United States air traffic control system.
Yet, more than a half a century later,
the government is still using much of the exact
same outdated technology.
At a time when every passenger has GPS technology
in their pockets, our air traffic control system
still runs on radar and ground-based radio systems
that they don't even make anymore,
they can't even fix anymore, and many controllers
must use slips of paper to track
our thousands and thousands of planes that are up in the air.
Our air traffic control system was designed
when roughly 100,000 people flew at our airports each year.
We are now approaching nearly one billion
passengers annually.
The current system cannot keep up -- hasn't been
able to keep up for many years.
It causes flight delays and crippling
inefficiencies, costing our economy as much
as $25 billion a year in economic output.
We live in a modern age, yet our air traffic
control system is stuck painfully in the past.
The FAA has been trying to upgrade our nation's
air traffic control system for a long period of years.
But after billions and billions of tax dollars
spent and the many years of delays, we are still
stuck with an ancient, broken, antiquated,
horrible system that doesn't work.
Other than that, it's quite good.
(Laughter.)
The previous administration spent over $7 billion
trying to upgrade the system,
and totally failed.
Honestly, they didn't know what the hell they were doing.
A total waste of money -- $7 billion-plus-plus.
It's time to join the future.
That is why I'm proposing new principles to Congress
for air traffic control reform making flights
quicker, safer and more reliable.
Crucially, these reforms are supported
by air traffic controllers themselves.
They're the ones that know the systems that they want.
They know it better than anybody.
And we have people -- they don't even call them
in the past.
But now we call them.
I'm also proud to be joined today by passenger
advocates, pilot unions, and leaders of airlines
and cargo companies who strongly support
our new framework and our bidding process.
And we're bidding, ideally, to one great
company -- there will be many bids, but one great
company that can piece it all together --
not many companies all over the United States, like in the past.
When they came time to piece it together,
it didn't work.
There were all different systems.
We threw away billions and billions of dollars.
I am very grateful that every former FAA chief
and chief operating officers and three former
Transportation Secretaries -- Jim Burnley, Elizabeth Dole,
and Mary Peters -- stand with us today.
Thank you.
(Applause.)
This is an incredible coalition for change.
All over the room, it's a coalition for change.
The leaders of the industry.
At its core, our new plan will dramatically improve
America's air traffic control system
by turning it over to a self-financing,
non-profit organization.
This new entity will not need taxpayer money,
which is very shocking when people hear that.
They don't hear that too often.
Under this new plan, the Federal Aviation Administration
will focus firmly on what it does best -- safety.
A separate non-profit entity would be charged
with ensuring route efficiency, timely
service, and a long-awaited reduction in delays.
Our plan will also maintain support
for rural communities and small airports, including airfields
used by our Air National Guard units --
great people.
And, very importantly, air traffic controllers
will highly -- and this will be highly valued.
These are highly valued people.
These are amazing people that know this system so well.
And under our plan, they will have more financial security,
professional opportunity, and far superior equipment.
The best equipment anywhere in the world.
There will never be anything like what we're doing.
And other systems are very good.
I won't tell you the names of the country,
but we have studied numerous countries, one in particular --
they have a very, very good system.
Ours is going to top it by a lot.
Our incredible air traffic controllers keep us safe
every day even though they are forced to use
this badly outdated system.
That is why we want to give them access
to capital markets and investors so they can
obtain the best, newest, and safest technology available.
And by the way, the new technology -- and I've
seen it -- is incredible.
If we adopt these changes, Americans can look forward
to cheaper, faster, and safer travel --
a future where 20 percent of a ticket price doesn't go
to the government, and where you don't have to sit
on a tarmac or circle for hours and hours over an airport --
which is very dangerous also -- before you land.
Dozens of countries have already made similar changes
with terrific results.
And we're going to top them, actually, by a long shot.
Canada, as an example, modernized their air traffic
control through a non-government
organization about 20 years ago, and they have cut
costs significantly, adopted cutting-edge
technology, and handled 50 percent more traffic --
and actually, far more than that on a relative
basis compared to us.
A modern air traffic control system
will make life better for all Americans who travel,
ship, or fly.
It will reduce cost and increase convenience
for every American consumer -- and these new efficiencies
will produce a huge economic boost
for the country, and for the 1 in 14 American jobs
that aviation supports.
Today, we are taking the first important step
to clearing the runway for more jobs, lower prices,
and much, much, much better transportation.
America is the nation that pioneered air travel,
and with these reforms, we can once again lead the way
far into the future.
Our nation will move faster, fly higher,
and soar proudly toward the next great chapter
of American aviation.
Thank you.
God bless you.
And God bless the United States of America.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
(Applause.)