DAVID FIELD WASHINGTON
The Democratic party is once again in control of the US Senate, and airline lobbyists are concerned that the proponents of legislation to improve industry service levels may hold more sway.
Aviation is a lot like motherhood, apple pie and other all-American issues: it is cross-party. That is what Capitol Hill types like to say, but what it means is this: Democrats and Republicans both hate the airlines. The big difference now that the Senate has changed hands is that protests against poor service may move beyond the verbal and approach the substantive.
That is what worries airline lobbyists now that the Democratic party is again in control of the upper house after the defection of a single senator, Vermont's always individualistic and often quixotic Jim Jeffords, from the Republicans to the Democrats.
The change means that all committee leaderships change and that Arizona's Republican Senator, John McCain, loses the powerful Senate Commerce Committee - which falls back into the hands of its previous long-time chairman, South Carolina Democrat Ernest "Fritz" Hollings.
A septuagenarian (born 1922) and the state's junior senator after nonagenarian Strom Thurmond, Hollings is, unlike his senior colleague, an activist - one who has actively, openly and repeatedly questioned the wisdom of his decision to vote for airline deregulation back in 1978.
"Fritz", as Hollings is universally known, has more than regrets; he also has a plan. It is called the Airline Competition Restoration bill. Hollings' measure would give the Department of Transportation (DoT) the power to force carriers to make gates at hub airports available to competitors on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms".
Just what that means is uncertain, but there is no uncertainty as to Hollings' power: he is also a key appropriator. His seniority on the Senate Appropriations Committee is third only to that of the Senate's king of pork barrel spending, West Virginia's Robert Byrd, the committee chair, and the next-highest ranking Democrat, Hawaii's Daniel Inouye.
And it is the appropriators who can decide exactly how much is spent on which airport project or how much an agency such as the DoT may devote to a given project. Appropriators can also make it very clear to the agencies under their jurisdiction just what policies they should and should not adopt.
Appropriators also have a special power: they can block the home-town project such as a runway, roadway, bridge or even a public library, that another member is backing, or advance it.
All of which points toward real chances for Hollings' pet bill. "Remember, his hub bill is the thing he cares most about, head and shoulders above all the rest. He is not as committed to passenger rights as someone like McCain," said a former committee aide who now actively lobbies the panel. Hollings and others feel that services to cities in rural states have suffered most.
Source: Airline Business
