In response to recent editorials by the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal calling for privatization of the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) systems, U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Rick Larsen (D-WA) released letters raising concerns over those proposals, citing issues with the industry’s complexities and potential risks to taxpayers should anything go wrong.
In their letter to the Washington Post, the two representatives emphasized a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) which found that privatizing the nation’s air traffic control systems could make it “too big to fail,” which meant that taxpayers might have to bail out the corporation in charge of ATC if it couldn’t pay the necessary costs to operate safely.
“Privatizing our air traffic control system presents myriad risks and perils,” the representatives said. “Targeted reforms can achieve our common objectives and maintain our nation’s unparalleled aviation safety record.”
The congressmen also took umbrage with a claim in the Wall Street Journal which stated that ATC privatization received bipartisan support.
“No congressional Democrats have called for change, and in fact all Democrats and two Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee opposed a privatization proposal last year,” the congressmen wrote.
DeFazio and Larsen added that both the House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders opposed ATC privatization, as did the leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee.
In addition to their concerns, the congressmen cited a failed ATC privatization effort in the United Kingdom, stating that not only did the efforts not relieve taxpayers of a financial burden, the system needed an injection of 130 million pounds sterling after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.