NCL disappointed in House committee vote to give airlines control of air traffic control – National Consumers League
June 28, 2017
Contact: National Consumers League, Cindy Hoang, cindyh@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832
Washington, DC–The National Consumers League (NCL) today expressed disappointment with the passage of anti-consumer legislation extending the authorization on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The following statement is attributable to Sally Greenberg, NCL executive director:
Yesterday, in a near party-line vote the Republican members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure voted to give away our public airspace to the airlines. Under this proposal, the very entities that have suffered numerous computer outages that downed thousands of flights, would be in charge of the critical Air Traffic Control (ATC) infrastructure.
It is mind-boggling that in an era of record airline consolidation, members of the committee chose to give even more control to the oligopolistic airline industry. It is further troubling that, when given the choice to support an amendment to ensure that government representatives of the newly privatized ATC corporation act in the public interest, the committee again declined even this modest improvement, ensuring that the airline industry has full control of the ATC corporation.
The National Consumers League urges members of the House and Senate to reject this radical and dangerous privatization proposal and to vote “no” on any bill or amendment that gives control of the nation’s critical ATC infrastructure to the airlines. We will continue to do all we can to oppose this anti-consumer, anti-competition legislation.
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About the National Consumers League
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.
