Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-8) issued the following statement regarding today's hearing in the House of Representatives' Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on the financial condition of the nation's aviation industry.  Pascrell is a member of the Committee's Aviation Subcommittee:

"It is clear that without some short-term assistance, our aviation industry will not survive the impact of last week's horrible attacks on our country. We need to stabilize the industry quickly and drastically improve security at our airports, but we should not just hand over a blank check and subsidize the airlines for $3 billion in losses they would have incurred had these heinous attacks not been perpetrated.

We must act and act quickly to keep this fundamental part of our nation's economy strong. There are countless jobs at stake and whole sectors of the economy in peril. We must have stability and security as our top priorities right now, and that is what the Congress is working to achieve."

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