Gov't Expected To Agree On Airline Aid Package

A congressional conference committee this week is expected to iron out differences within House and Senate bills that call for more than $3 billion in emergency assistance to U.S. airlines to pay for additional security costs and cover a portion of lost business attributed to travel concerns over the war with Iraq.

The joint conference committee is expected to meet this week before Congress adjourns for spring break on Friday.

President Bush still must approve the bill and Administration officials initially opposed money for the airlines, blaming carriers for their losses and not the war. However, White House officials during the past week have indicated that the President will agree to some assistance for the airlines to ensure rapid approval of the bill that also will release money for the war.

Both houses of Congress last week overwhelmingly approved the aid provisions, which were included in supplemental wartime appropriations bills to provide more than $75 billion to fund the current U.S. military action.

The bill passed by the House includes about $3.2 billion for U.S. airlines and the Senate plan provides about $3.5 billion. The funds would reimburse airlines for such new security requirements as fortified cockpit doors and help extend the government's program of subsidized war-risk insurance, as well as relieve passengers from paying additional security fees. Both bills also stipulate that airlines receiving funds cannot provide compensation to senior executives that exceeds the base pay and benefits that such executives received in 2002.

Both bills, however, provide for less than the airlines said they need. The Air Transport Association has estimated that airlines were expected to lose nearly $7 billion this year and that the war in Iraq would increase those losses by another $4 billion.