Why Isn't Congress Investigating The Dreamliner?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

INFLUENCE GAME: Congress silent on Dreamliner woes

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Boeing, its airline customers and federal safety regulators struggled over the past two months to solve problems with the new 787 Dreamliner's fire-plagued batteries, one player has been strangely silent: Congress.

Despite the plane's grounding and the safety issues raised by its cutting-edge technology, there have been no congressional hearings or news conferences focusing on the problems, and little commentary from lawmakers who normally pounce at the first sign of trouble.

The unusual bipartisan silence reflects Boeing's political clout, wielded by legions of lobbyists, fueled by hefty political campaign contributions and by the company's importance as a huge employer and the nation's single largest exporter. Few companies are as well positioned as Boeing to fend off a potentially damaging public investigation.

This week, the Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing on the FAA and its budget, during which the members are expected to discuss aviation safety. The 787's problems aren't specifically on the agenda, but they could come up — or not. No one from Boeing is scheduled to testify.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the commerce committee, said Boeing officials have implored him not to hold a hearing on the 787 batteries. "Their lobbyists have been saying that like crazy for weeks and weeks and weeks," he said.

"Because this is an issue of huge significance in both economic and safety terms, you would think it would be a natural for Congress," said Norman Ornstein, an expert on Congress at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank.

It's easy to imagine House Republicans "jumping at this and bashing the administration and the FAA," he said, "but that would mean taking on a major part of the business community that has been very supportive of people chairing these committees and subcommittees."

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20130319/US--Boeing_s.Clout/

Too big to crash?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Too big to crash?

Bashing Boeing makes Airbus stronger. Sure, the former just landed a record $16bn order for it's 737-800 from Irish Ryanair. But how many such orders would Boeing be granted if the issues around the 787 would be headline news day in and day out? The 787 troubles may well have cose Boeing large orders already - rival Airbus has very recently booked a $24bn order for it's competiting A-320 aircraft from Lion Air - an airline with thus far an all Boeing fleet. Not sure whether the 787 debacle has anything to do with this but making that issue more prominent surely won't help Boeing and would hurt the US economy. As such, it is surprising that Republicans don't drag the Boeing execs into Congressional hearings. Good opportunity to kill some jobs.

The 787 is cutting edge technology which - naturally - has some issues at inception. So what? Every breakthrough technology has them. Remember the issues they had with the A-380? And that aircraft isn't even anything revolutionary from a technology perspective - it's just huge.