Senator plans effort to head off air traffic privatization

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., is planning to lead an effort this year to prevent the Bush administration from taking steps he believes could lead to the privatization of air traffic control.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has expressed similar concerns, and Lautenberg is initiating a series of actions this week to ensure air traffic controllers are not deposited on what he calls a "slippery slope" into the private sector.

"This will be a big fight this year," said one senior Lautenberg aide. The Bush administration maintains the air traffic controllers have nothing to worry about and it does not intend to boot them off the federal payroll.

The controllers are nervous, nonetheless, because in recent weeks the administration has moved to reclassify air traffic control from an "inherently governmental" function to a "commercial" activity. While the type of commercial activity under which air traffic controllers are newly classified does not allow their services to be contracted out, NATCA and Lautenberg are concerned that the controllers might eventually fall under a different "commercial" category that could put them on the auction block.

In a Dec. 19 letter to controllers, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said the action was taken because air traffic control does not fit the technical definition of "inherently governmental."

In the letter, Blakey said she and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta do not endorse "significant" expansion of an existing small airport program that draws on the private sector for controllers. Nor do they back "similar contracting proposals involving the separation and control of air traffic," Blakey wrote.

Unassuaged, Lautenberg has filed an amendment to the fiscal 2003 omnibus appropriations bill that would deny funding to privatize the air traffic control system or to change the classification of the system from inherently governmental to commercial. It is unclear, however, whether Lautenberg intends to offer the amendment on the floor.

Lautenberg is also seeking signatures from other senators on a letter to President Bush urging the administration to re-designate air traffic control as inherently governmental.

Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid, D-Nev., is among those who have already signed the letter. Lautenberg hopes to amass enough signatures to send it to Bush by the end of the week.

"Any attempt to privatize the air traffic control function will jeopardize the safety and security of the American people," states the letter, a copy of which was provided to CongressDaily. "In an era where aviation safety is such an enormously high priority, we should not create any ambiguity about the federal government's complete responsibility for the safety of the flying public."

Lautenberg has a long history of involvement in transportation issues and has been one of the Senate's leading defenders of the financially imperiled Amtrak rail system.

He plans to push for action on the air traffic control issue by the Senate Commerce Committee this year, aides said.