Madam Speaker, today, Senator Feinstein in the Senate and I are introducing legislation permitting a simple administrative fix that will improve education outcomes for thousands of students in my…
Madam Speaker, today, Senator Feinstein in the Senate and I are introducing legislation permitting a simple administrative fix that will improve education outcomes for thousands of students in my congressional district.
Imagine, Madam Speaker, sitting at a desk, attempting to memorize a verse or tackle a tough math problem as jet planes roar overhead every few minutes. Every hour. Every day.
That is the situation for the children of Lennox, a mostly working class community that lies just east of LAX, in the airport's flight path. Lennox was added to my district in 2000, and I have worked hard to help the children there get a quality education.
In 1980, Lennox School District and the city of Los Angeles settled a lawsuit concerning aircraft movements over Lennox schools. Lennox gave the city an easement that allowed planes carrying up to 40 million passengers per year to fly overhead, and the city paid Lennox approximately $2.5 million.
In the years since, air traffic over Lennox schools has significantly increased. As a result, many of the schools are now like bunkers, half underground with no windows. Others have all their windows boarded up.
In February of 2005, Lennox and Los Angeles World Airports, LAWA, settled a second lawsuit, to which Inglewood School District was also a party. Under this settlement, LAWA agreed to provide Lennox and Inglewood with more than $110 million in noise mitigation funds over 10 years.
However, the FAA has interpreted the 1980 agreement and Federal law to prevent payment of the funds under the 2005 agreement. A legislative solution is the only way that these funds can be released.
Our bill is narrowly tailored to allow LAWA to release the funds it promised to Lennox and Inglewood in the 2005 agreement. The bill is identical to legislation that I introduced in the last Congress, H.R. 6285, which was drafted with the assistance of the FAA, Lennox School District, and LAWA. Importantly, the funds in question are airport funds, not Federal tax dollars, and our bill would not require new Federal spending.
These children deserve a quality education, and this bill will ensure that they get one. I urge its swift passage.
