With airliners roaring past in the background, Vice President Al Gore proclaimed the establishment of a government-run corporation to take over the nation's air traffic control operations.
"You can see from this vacuum tube the absurdity of the present system," Gore said, holding up an example of the technology long abandoned by business but still the mainstay of the government-run air traffic system.In his other hand Gore held aloft a tiny computer chip that he said would do the work of 3.5 million vacuum tubes and called for freedom from federal purchasing red tape that has delayed the arrival of such technology.
Transportation Secretary Federico Pena joined Gore at National Airport to announce plans for a new U.S. Air Traffic Services Corp., which he said could be in place within a year after Congress approves it.
The plan has met with some skepticism on Capitol Hill, but Sen Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee, was on hand to endorse the basic idea. He has scheduled a hearing on the plan for May 12.
"We're gauging the temperature on the Hill to see if it's passable, movable this year, and we want to move it if that is doable. We don't want to end up with something that winds up just sitting there," said Frank Kruesi, who heads the Transportation Department committee that designed the plan. The administration is working with members of Congress on "the best way to do this," Kruesi said.
The basic proposal would set up a government-run corporation to take over air traffic control system now handled by the Federal Aviation Administration. Fees paid by airlines would pay for the system, and government agencies and the aviation industry would be represented on the board.
Similar systems are used to operate some other government functions such as the Postal Service, Tennessee Valley Authority and Amtrak.
It is a system "clothed with the power of government but with the flexibility and initiative of private enterprise," said Gore, who pressed for the change as part of his "reinventing government" program.