This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 29, 1993

MEMBERS OF AIRLINE COMMISSION NAMED

(Washington, DC) The President announced today the membership of the National Commission to Ensure a Strong Competitive Airline Industry, which will be chaired by former Virginia Governor Gerald Baliles, who the President has appointed after consultation with the Congressional leadership.

President Clinton first proposed that this commission be formed after a meeting with airline executives in Everett, Washington on February 22. A bill was then introduced and passed by Congress, and was signed by the President on April 7.

The bill calls for a Commission of 15 voting members, 5 appointed by the President, 3 by the Speaker of the House, 3 by the Senate Majority Leader, and 2 each by the Minority Leaders of the House and Senate. In addition, the commission has 11 nonvoting members, of whom 1 is appointed by the President, 3 each by the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader, and 2 each by the Minority Leaders of the House and Senate.

The members of the Commission appointed by the President are:

Gerald L. Baliles, Chair, Partner, Hunton & Williams/Former

Governor of Virginia, Richmond, VA Bette B. Anderson, President, Kelly, Anderson and Associates,

Inc., Washingon, DC
Sylvia A. de Leon, Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld,

Washington, DC
Herbert D. Kelleher, Chief Executive Officer, Southwest Airlines,

Dallas, TX
Gina F. Thomas, Managing Attorney for International and

Regulatory Affairs, Federal Express Corporation, Memphis, TN

(more)

Commission to Ensure a Strong Competitive Airline Industry page two

The members appointed by the Senate are:

Charles "Chip" M. Barclay, President, the American Association of

Airport Executives, Washington, DC Robert F. Daniell, Chief Executive Officer, United Technologies,

West Hartford, CT
Felix G. Rohatyn, Managing Partner, Lazard Freres and Company,

New York, NY
Russell W. Meyer, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,

Cessna Aircraft Company, Wichita, KS Abraham D. Sofaer, Partner, Hughes, Hubbard, and Reed,

Washington, DC

The members appointed by the House are:

Captain J. Randolph Babbitt, President, Airline Pilots

Association (ALPA), Oakton, VA
John Peterpaul, Vice President, International Association of

Machinists (IAM), Silver Spring, MD Sandra Pianalto, First Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank,

Cleveland, OH
John E. Robson, Lister Crown Distinguished Faculty Fellow, Yale

University, New Haven, CT
Daniel M. Kasper, Director of Transportation Practice, Harbridge

House, Inc., Boston, MA

The ex-officio (non-voting) members are:

Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Chair, President's Council of Economic

Advisors, California
Senator J. James Exon, Nebraska
Senator Ernest Hollings, South Carolina Senator Patty Murray, Washington
Senator John Danforth, Missouri
Senator Slade Gorton, Washington
Representative Richard Gephardt, Missouri Representative Robert Borski, Pennsylvania Representative Maria Cantwell, Washington Representative Newt Gingrich, Georgia
Representative Bud Shuster, Pennsylvania

A statement by the President is attached.

###

      STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE NATIONAL COMMISSION
         TO ENSURE A STRONG COMPETITIVE AIRLINE INDUSTRY

     Today, I am, in conjunction with the bipartisan

Congressional leadership, releasing the names of the members of the National Commission to Ensure a Strong and Competitive Airline Industry.

This commission will enable us to start planning the revitalization of one of our country's most important industries, one of our most important exporters, one of our nation's most important employers: the aircraft manufacturers and carriers that have been the pride of the United States and the world's leaders since the beginning of aviation. I pledge that this Commission will have the full resources of every agency of the Federal government at its disposal.

Each of the individuals on this Commission brings a strong record of accomplishment in his or her field, together with a keen sense of the importance of aviation in a global economy. Each of them has demonstrated the ability to look toward the future and the energy and intellect to shape the course of the current airline debate.

I would like to thank the bipartisan Congressional leadership for their support and leadership in creating this commission and in selecting persons of such high calibre.

The Chairman of the Commission will be an old friend and former colleague of mine, former Virginia Governor Gerald L. Baliles. Perhaps no other Governor in the past decade devoted more thought and attention to the global nature of the challenges facing his state. Governor Baliles always recognized that the nature of competition had changed fundamentally, and that any strategy to shape that change must be rooted in a vision extending beyond our borders. He recognized that aviation is the lifeblood of commerce in a global economy, and made it an important part of his state's competitiveness strategy. That is what we must do now at a national level.

As the legislation creating this commission was debated in Congress, it became clear that there are many different explinations of why our airline carriers and manufacturers are facing such financial difficulty. And those issues will be debated. But it will be valuable for the Commission to take a step back from that debate and examine the context in which the aviation industry operates. To the extent the Commission can help us understand how we got to where we are today, and provide a vision for a competitive future, it will have rendered an invaluable service. I look forward to receiving their report and pledge the full cooperation of my entire administration in their work.

###