<B>WashingtonWire</B>
<B>TBR Plans Presidential Travel board</B>
The Travel Business Roundtable has issued a legislative proposal calling for congressional creation of a presidential advisory council on travel and tourism that would advise the executive branch on decisions affecting the travel industry. TBR chairman Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels, unveiled the organization's legislative slate at the May 1-2 annual meeting in Washington. If approved, an advisory panel to the President on travel would be "the first time ever in this country," Tisch told meeting delegates. Letters endorsing the concept have been sent to President Bush from House members on the executive committee of the travel and tourism caucus. According to the lawmakers' letters, "The advisory council would review current policies that support tourism export growth, perform a marketplace needs assessment, identify successful tourism promotion programs undertaken at the state and local levels and by foreign governments, and recommend policy improvements to advance U.S. tourism exports abroad." Other items on TBR's legislative action agenda include support for 100 percent deductibility of business meals and entertainment, and elimination of excise taxes on the purchase of frequent flyer miles. Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), a member of the the travel and tourism caucus, said that restoration of the full deduction for business meals and entertainment would allow economic expansion. "In tax policy, we have to make choices. We need ones that lead to growth," he said. Charlie Black, president and CEO of BKSH & Associates, predicted that while this year the tax bill likely won't address travel and tourism business issues, next year the restoration of the business meals deduction "may well be" considered.
<B><A NAME="2">INS Seeks Fee Hike To Speed Int'l Passenger Processing</B>
Increased user fees at U.S. ports of entry would be used to improve the clearance process and reduce delays, Kevin Rooney, acting commissioner for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said May 9 in testimony to the House appropriations commerce, justice, state and judiciary subcommittee. Currently, INS charges international airline passengers who enter the United States a $6 user fee. The Administration's fiscal year 2002 budget request proposes increasing the user fee to $7. "With these resources, the service will strive to process 77 percent of all commercial flights within 30 minutes and make strides in streamlining and automating manual processes, improving data integrity and supporting enforcement requirements," Rooney said. Subcommittee member Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) described the impact of long processing delays on Los Angeles International Airport. She said that it takes INS more than 45 minutes to process about one-third of all international flights into Los Angeles and sometimes more than two hours. Even though more than 8 million international passengers arrive at LAX annually, INS only has 70 percent of the necessary inspectors according to the agency's own Workforce Allocation Model. Roybal-Allard urged INS to allocate more resources to LAX to ensure that the agency is prepared to meet the increased demand during the busy summer months ahead.
<B><A NAME="3">Bush To DOT: Make Air Improvements A Priority</B>
President Bush has directed the U.S. Department of Transportation to make improving the air travel experience for Americans "one of the highest priorities" of the department, said DOT secretary Norman Mineta. Doing so will require expanding airport and airways capacity to handle the increased number of travelers expected within the decade. That number is projected to be 1 billion by the year 2010, up from 700 million in 2000. Although "we need to pour some more concrete" to provide the long-term solution to the capacity problem, Mineta pointed to a number of short-term initiatives that DOT already is taking to improve the present situation. Compared with last summer's record flight delays, "I don't think it will be as bad this year," he said, largely because the Federal Aviation Administration has improved its spring-summer plan, which provides for centralized management of the air traffic control system at the agency's command center in Herndon, Va. "The key is the real-time collaboration with the airlines, so they can manage their operations in severe weather conditions," Mineta said. He noted, too, that FAA is making ATC changes to relieve pressure on the seven "choke points" in the system--the airspace within the Chicago/Boston/Washington, D.C., triangle. "This is where small problems become big problems, as their ripple effects are felt across the country," he said. "By rerouting departing traffic from some New York-area airports, for example, departure stops have decreased by 30 percent to 40 percent from what they were just a year ago.