By Jane Calderwood
Legislation has been introduced by Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) and Sen.John Thune (R-S.D.), H.R. 1474 and S. 785, that would require every city, county and state to contract out to the private sector all activities for which they receive federal funding, except those required for the national defense or homeland security or if there is no private source capable of providing a specific service.
The legislation was introduced at the request of the National Air Transport Association, which represents private fixed based operators, and is part of their ongoing effort to prohibit airports from serving as FBOs.
NATA is clearly willing to go to great lengths to obtain a monopoly on the FBO business given that the legislation they are pushing takes the “Washington Knows Best” theory to its extreme. The bill requires the Office of Management and Budget to promulgate regulations to assure that “any state or territory, or political subdivision of a state or territory, complies with the policy and implements the requirements of this section when expending federal funds.” In other words, city, county and state services, which receive federal funds, must be contracted to the private sector.
NATA President Jim Coyne’s wrote in a recent blog that airport run FBOs “…misunderstand the service demands of a time-sensitive aircraft user community and rarely manage costs as consistently and effectively as private sector-owners.” He conveniently ignores the fact that an airport-run FBO must justify its actions to its operating board, made up of members of the community, and therefore, to the community it serves. A private FBO has no such responsibility.
ACI-NA and its’ members cannot let this one size fits all, hostile takeover get off the ground.
NATA members are scheduled to be on Capitol Hill in on May 4-5 to push for action on this legislation so it is imperative that every congressman and senator knows the real facts about this legislation before NATA members get to DC. So please do your part and reach out to your congressional delegation to let them know that Washington doesn’t know best and should not be making decisions for the local community when it comes to their airports.