THE HILL Op-Ed: Remove Brown Bailout, Pass Vital Air Safety Bill

We wanted to share with you an op-ed that ran in The Hill today calling on Congress to move forward with important air safety legislation and say no to the Brown Bailout.

Congress should move forward with vital air safety bill

By David J. Bronczek
The Hill
June 21, 2010

The House and Senate have both passed versions of FAA reauthorization legislation. But despite broad, bipartisan support for a measure that emphasizes air safety and transportation modernization, it remains to be seen whether the two chambers can agree on a final bill in the remaining days before the current extension deadline of July 3.

The holdup is a 230-word provision inserted into the House bill that would change the federal labor law that governs FedEx Express, one of the world’s largest airlines. The provision is extraneous to the legislation, having no broad impact on air safety or infrastructure upgrades.

But it would help UPS and its primary union, the Teamsters. Indeed, the provision is anti-competitive and would unfairly benefit one company, UPS, while targeting only FedEx Express. Put another way, it amounts to a legislative bailout. The Senate version of the FAA bill does not contain the UPS provision, and the Senate version received bipartisan support, passing the Senate 93-0.