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This is indeed an extraordinary moment in the history of this country and history of American business. Let us see if we cannot set the stage properly so we understand exactly what is going on.

As my colleague Mr. Lewis has stated and given history of Delta Airlines' brilliant and hard fought effort to come out of bankruptcy, this is a great American story. It is perhaps one of the greatest business recovery stories in American history.

Delta Airlines was at the bottom, but that company came together. It made the sacrifices. Its pilots' union gave and gave. Its employees gave back raises. They combined their efforts. That company, under brilliant management and leadership, brought itself together.

We owe it to Delta to have their bankruptcy plan now go into effect, and they have a plan to come out of bankruptcy, which they will have and they will come out of bankruptcy within the next 6 months. Do we not owe it to Delta to give them that opportunity to make it work?

Meanwhile, lurching on the sidelines, almost like a vulture, is U.S. Airways. Let me take a moment to describe U.S. Airways at this point. Here is a company that is just coming out of bankruptcy itself, a company that has just gone through a merger, that is now problematic, a company that has a merger in which it is now dealing with two sets of pilots' unions, two sets of flight attendants' unions, two reservation systems and two scheduling systems. How in the world can we, in effect, for a creditor who has an indebtedness with Delta feel that that investment can best be met by investing in a company, an airline company that is beset with a ton of labor problems?

I want to deal with the other issue. Not only is it bad for the creditors, it is bad in terms of our own antitrust practices. In a previous case in which there was a United Airlines merger, the Justice Department's antitrust division ruled that that could not merge, and they did not nearly have the overlapping that this does.

So now we have a case here that with Delta in bankruptcy, even if this merger does proceed to a point, then it goes into bankruptcy, then the antitrust division of the Justice Department must rule.

That is why it is important for us in Congress to make this bold statement and urge the Justice Department and urge that we have hearings and do everything we can to stop this merger from going through on the grounds that it is anti-competitiveness, it is anti-consumer and it is anti-American for this important reason.

Another thing about U.S. Airways, they buy their airplanes from foreign governments, whereas Delta buys theirs from American governments.

Madam Speaker, I think it is very important for us to make sure that we sum up these major points that we have made here this evening, and that is this: one, this planned hostile takeover, which hopefully we will arrest and stop in the next few days, is anti-consumer, it is anti-competitive; it is not in the best interests of the American traveling public, it is not in the best interests of the creditors to Delta, and it certainly violates, as the gentleman from Utah so eloquently stated point by point, it clearly violates the antitrust statutes of the Justice Department of this country.

So it is within the spirit of what is good and what is right about America, and let me say this to my colleagues and to you, Madam Speaker, that this country is grounded on justice. The American people are expecting justice. This is not just a case for Delta Airlines; it is not just a case for the airline industry. This is a case for the American people, and they are looking at this Congress to provide leadership, keep the feet to the fire, and make sure that this hostile takeover does not take place in the form of any kind of merger, and that Delta Airlines is allowed to stand alone and earn the right that they deserve to come back full flushed and be the outstanding airline that we know that they are.