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**JUNE 30, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
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**** Buttigieg Under Fire From
Capitol Hill Leaders
With July 4th flight cancellations approaching, the transportation
secretary is faulted for having no remedial plan.
The embattled and embarrassed transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg,
is now drawing fire from key Democrats in Congress, demanding that he do
more on behalf of beleaguered airline passengers who face thousands more
canceled flights over the coming July 4th weekend.
As we have reported
,
the transportation secretary has residual authority to crack down on the
airline practice of having insufficient crew staffing to meet the
schedules they publish and the tickets. That-and not weather
delays-is the prime cause of last-minute flight cancellations.
Yesterday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), chair of the Senate Budget
Committee, put out a tough statement
calling on Secretary Buttigieg to take urgent steps to protect
passengers and crew members, including requiring airlines to promptly
refund passengers for flights that have been delayed over an hour;
imposing fines on airlines for flights that are delayed more than two
hours; and imposing fines on airlines for scheduling flights that they
are unable to properly staff, at a rate of $55,000 per passenger, which
is high enough to force the airlines to take the much cheaper step of
actually hiring enough people to fly the planes.
Today, Sanders was joined by Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who serves on
the House Oversight Committee and is deputy whip of the Congressional
Progressive Caucus. In a letter obtained exclusively by the
**Prospect**, Khanna wrote to Buttigieg: "The Department's incremental
response so far has been lacking the urgency, imagination, and boldness
to meet the moment and needs of the American people."
Khanna credited the
**Prospect**'s reporting for raising the visibility of the issue of
airlines' abuses and Buttigieg's feeble responses. He told me:
"Buttigieg needs to make clear that he has the authority to go after the
airlines for unfair and deceptive practices. He needs to lay out a
framework for what the consequences will be for canceled flights,
understaffing, and misrepresentations to passengers."
Khanna added that, as a senior member of the Oversight Committee, he
will be pursuing hearings to call airline executives and the
transportation secretary. "DOT's approach has been way too timid," he
added. "The administration should realize that this type of enforcement
action will rally people to appreciate what their government can do on
their behalf. This is a solvable problem."
Read the letter from Rep. Khanna here
.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
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How to Fight Inflation
Skanda Amarnath of Employ America talked to TAP about how optimal
solutions for private companies make the economy brittle and vulnerable
to future shocks. BY LEE HARRIS & DAVID DAYEN
'Moderate' Democrats Are Anything But
Politicians genuinely aiming to represent the center of American
politics would not block policies that poll over 90 percent approval, as
today's 'moderates' have done. BY RYAN COOPER
Robocallers Still Have Your Number
The FCC has implemented new rules, but the decades-old problem requires
stronger tactics. BY ROBERT HITT
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