<B> Washington Wire</B>
By Barbara Cook, Washington Correspondent
<B>FAA Loses All Funding, Temporarily </B>
The House of Representatives has passed a fiscal year 2000 spending bill for the U.S. Department of Transportation that ended up cutting off all funding for operating the Federal Aviation Administration. The dispute arose over Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Bud Shuster's (R-Pa.) argument that the legislation as written would have required all funding for FAA to come from the aviation trust fund, in effect eliminating any contributions from the general treasury. While Shuster is pursuing separate legislation to wall off the aviation trust fund from uses other than aviation, he doesn't want FAA to have to rely solely upon the fund. In the ensuing confusion, all funding to operate FAA, including paying the staff, was dropped from the bill. Observers expect the funding will be restored when the House and Senate hold a final conference on the bill. Meanwhile, in the Senate, no floor action has yet taken place on a companion spending bill for DOT for fiscal year 2000, which begins Oct. 1. That bill has been slowed by a controversy surrounding a transit-related provision, as well as efforts by some senators to attach a Patient Bill of Rights provision to every bill on the Senate floor.
<a name="2"><b>Senate Passes Passenger Rights Oversight</B>
The Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has passed legislation to provide oversight of the Customers First passenger rights initiative recently announced by the Air Transport Association. The oversight bill replaces legislation earlier introduced by McCain and Sen. Roy Wyden (D-Ore.) that would have enacted into law a bill of rights for airline travelers. McCain's new measure would direct the Inspector General of the DOT to monitor the activities of ATA carriers and determine whether each airline member of ATA lives up to its individual commitment to passengers. The IG would be required to submit an interim report to Congress by June 15, 2000, and a final report by Dec. 31, 2000.
One provision of the bill would require the General Accounting Office to study the financial consequences of prohibiting airlines from outlawing back-to-back and hidden city ticketing and report its findings by June 15, 2000. While McCain's legislative proposal would involve the government in monitoring passenger service rights, it also signals that, for the time being at least, Congress will hold off on any plans to pass full-blown passenger rights legislation. The American Society of Travel Agents, which recently announced its support for a new airline passenger rights bill sponsored by Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.), said it plans to continue lobbying for the Sweeney bill. "Although the airlines' proposal addresses some of the points contained in the Sweeney bill, there are a great many issues that the airlines are unwilling to address," said ASTA president and CEO Joe Galloway.
<a name="3"><B>Amtrak: Good Service Or Your Money Back</B>
Amtrak has launched its own passenger initiative, promising a money-back guarantee program later this year that will refund the ticket price if the onboard service wasn't satisfactory. In preparation, Amtrak is giving additional customer service training to 24,000 workers and upgrading onboard amenities to include hot meal options in the dining cars. Amtrak also just announced a state-of-the-art automated fare collection system developed in connection with Motorola's Worldwide Smartcard Solutions division that will be introduced this year on the new Acela Express high-speed Boston-New York-Washington service and rolled out nationwide by October 2000. The system is expected to generate more than $7 million in revenue by allowing the company to more accurately manage its seat inventory. The project also calls for Amtrak and Motorola to test two smart card applications, one to allow first-class passengers to use the card as an e-ticket, and the other to track onboard meals on Amtrak's long-distance trains. Amtrak is targeted to reach financial solvency--and end its federal subsidies--by 2002.
<a name="4"><B>DOT Official Resigns</B>
Pat Murphy, DOT deputy assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, will leave the department in September to join former DOT official Mark Gerchick in the aviation consulting firm Gerchick-Murphy Associates. Murphy has maintained a high profile at DOT on issues affecting airline competition, including the department's proposed airline competition guidelines, and was twice named to BTN's Top 25 list of Most Influential Executives (Jan. 13, 1997 and Jan. 11, 1999).