<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>Washington Wire</B>
10/28/96
<B>Group Studies Ticket Tax</B>
Getting a head start on the airline ticket tax issue, the House Ways and Means Committee has formed an informal task force to study possible revision of transportation-related taxes. The task force is expected to report its findings early in January, when the 105th Congress convenes.
Task force members include at least one backer of replacing the current system, which levies a 10 percent tax on domestic airline tickets, with a user-fee system. The major airlines over the past several months have mounted an extensive lobbying effort to replace the current system with a user fee that would be based on the number of seats on airplanes, the number of passengers and the per-passenger miles traveled. The large carriers argue that this system would be more equitable than a flat 10 percent tax and would raise the same amount of revenue annually.
<B>Selective Searches</B>
Vice President Gore's Aviation Safety and Security Commission is studying airline proposals to implement a selective domestic bag match program in lieu of the full positive bag match that commission members recommended earlier (<I>BTN</I>, Oct. 7).
Air Transport Association spokesman David Fuscus said that because of potential logistical problems associated with matching more than 400 million passengers to their 800 million bags each year, the airlines have proposed a substitute system in which passengers would be profiled to select those who should be subjected to more security scrutiny.
The Gore commission is cooperating with airline efforts to design such a profiling system, Fuscus said, explaining that as commission members become more informed about the complexities of the baggage checkin system, they are becoming more willing to listen to other proposals.
ATA chief economist David Swierenga, speaking at the Travel Industry Association's National Outlook Forum in mid-October, said ATA has decided the full baggage match is "unworkable." He said the profiling system the airlines are considering could identify certain passengers-such as frequent flyers or persons known personally to their travel agents-who could be spared the need for a baggage match. Testing will begin in a few weeks, but no date has been set on when a baggage match system will actually be in place at the nation's airports. The Gore commission holds its next meeting on Nov. 20.
<B>Aussie Visa Update</B>
Although the State Department announced that Americans are now eligible for visa-free entry to Australia as part of the U.S. visa waiver pilot program (<I>BTN</I>, Oct. 7), Americans might still be required to obtain visas through January 1997. In September, Australia began testing its Electronic Travel Authorization system, which replaces the old visa system with electronic pre-clearance, in Los Angeles; it will be followed by other locations throughout the country. But the test is highly restricted and is limited to certain passengers on certain flights. By early next year at the latest, ETA will be available to all U.S. citizens.
<B>U.S. Signs Satellite Systems Pacts</B>
The United States has signed agreements with Singapore and Mexico to conduct cooperative technical work on satellite-based navigational systems. The Global Positioning System, being developed by the United States, is a network of 24 satellites that provides precise information on air, land and seas. The United States is promoting the development of that technology in international markets.