"O'Hare plan still alive, but faces obstacles"

Wednesday, October 2, 2002

O'Hare plan clears committee
By Paul Merrion
Crain's Chicago (IL) Business  


WASHINGTON-The legislative gambit to get the expansion of O'Hare
International Airport past a potential Senate filibuster cleared another
hurdle Tuesday afternoon.

By voice vote, the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee
blocked an amendment by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Chicago, which would
have imposed federal control over dozens of airports around the country.


His measure, which Rep. Jackson joined in voting against, was meant to
illustrate what he called "a dangerous precedent by turning what should
be a local project and local decision into a federal one." 

After that vote, he decided not to offer another amendment to strip
language that was added to the transportation appropriations bill last
week to avoid a threatened filibuster by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill.,
if and when the House-passed O'Hare expansion bill comes up in the
Senate.

At this point, the Senate won't take up the O'Hare bill if it prevents
consideration of other important issues in the few days remaining before
adjournment. 

But O'Hare supporters inserted innocuous "placeholder" language in the
appropriations bill now pending in the House. After the Senate passes
its transportation appropriations bill, which won't contain that
provision, the two bills will be merged in conference committee by
substituting the O'Hare expansion bill for the House's placeholder
language.

The placeholder amendment in the appropriations bill directs the
secretary of transportation to encourage a locally developed airport
expansion plan in Chicago and file a progress report to Congress 90 days
after the bill becomes law. The House-passed O'Hare bill preempts state
law that gives the governor the power to veto new runways.

Attaching the O'Hare bill to an appropriations measure that has already
passed the Senate would sharply limit Sen. Fitzgerald's opportunities to
filibuster the bill.

However, it is not yet clear whether this is the final strategy.
Congress is bogged down in moving appropriations bills and a lame duck
session is likely. That means Congress must pass a continuing resolution
to keep the government funded until after the election.

While there will be pressure to keep it "clean" of extraneous measures,
the resolution will be "must-pass" legislation before Congress adjourns
so it will be an obvious vehicle for the top priorities of congressional
leaders, and both Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville, and Senate
Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., support O'Hare expansion.

"If it can be done, the Speaker's going to do it," says one O'Hare
supporter who asked not to be named. "I think all the players are
committed to the same endgame. If there's any wiggle room, it will make
it."


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