A congressional report, prepared at the request of O’Hare International Airport expansion opponent Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), concludes the deal between Chicago and the state on O’Hare expansion doesn’t require the federal government to approve construction of the proposed south suburban airport near Peotone.
Jackson, who is fighting legislation to inscribe the deal in federal law, asked the Congressional Research Service to compare sections of the bill applying to Peotone and to O’Hare.
The legislation calls on the Federal Aviation Administration to authorize construction of new runways at O’Hare if certain conditions are met, among them that no federal funds would be required for the project. The same measure calls on the FAA to give priority consideration to the Peotone airport.
The Congressional Research Service concluded that the provisions “appear to operate independently of each other … and provide different directions,” offering the FAA greater leeway in how it rules on the Peotone application than it does on the O’Hare application.
“This study unmasks the bare truth about the agreement between the mayor and the governor,” Jackson said.
