House Rejects Foreign Ownership of U.S. Airlines—But the Fight Isn’t Over

by Mike Hall, Jun 15, 2006

Foreign corporations were denied a boarding pass to take over U.S. airlines yesterday when the U.S. House overwhelmingly rejected a Bush administration plan that could have sold U.S. carriers to the highest foreign bidder.

By a 291-137 vote, the House approved an amendment to the transportation appropriations bill that bans the Bush administration’s Department of Transportation from implementing new rules that would allow foreign interests to control U.S. airlines.

Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), said:

Congress has correctly recognized that this proposal jeopardizes our national security, is not good for the U.S. aviation industry and would threaten the jobs and rights of thousands of workers.

The amendment was offered by Reps. James Oberstar (D- Minn.) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.). Oberstar said the Bush administration was trying to sell “the crown jewel of American transportation—our airlines.” He added that if the proposal were allowed to stand:

U.S. airline employees could lose high-quality job opportunities, in favor of employees of the foreign carrier. There could be similar effects on other aviation industry employees. Foreign investors would be inclined to support the purchase of aircraft produced by foreign companies, and to have the airline use foreign repair stations.

The vote was the second time this month the House and the Bush administration clashed over the foreign ownership issue. The recently passed emergency supplemental appropriations bill included a ban on the foreign ownership scheme. But after intense White House pressure, it was stripped from the bill.

The Bush White House likely will try to exert similar pressure when the transportation spending bill goes to conference with the Senate. A key Republican, House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) boasted that “we can probably kill it in conference.”

TTD mobilized aviation activists to urge their representatives to vote for the Oberstar-LoBiondo amendment and will pressure representatives who backed the amendment to fight attempts to strip it when the transportation appropriations goes to conference. We’ll keep you posted.

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