Four congressmen have come together again to ask President Obama to refrain from seeking new fees on commercial and general aviation operators, according to a post at NBAA.org.
“We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our strong opposition to any plan to impose a $100 per-flight fee on commercial and general aviation operators, “ Frank LoBiondo (R-2-NJ), chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, Rick Larsen (D-2-WA), the ranking member of the subcommittee, and Sam Graves (R-6-MO) and John Barrow (D-12-GA), the co-chairmen of the House General Aviation Caucus, said in a Feb. 27 letter to the Obama administration.
The president has proposed fees in three consecutive annual budget submissions to Congress, but has been shot down because of strong opposition from the industry and elected representatives. The administration is scheduled to release its fiscal 2015 budget next week.
In their letter, the House members reminded Obama that last April, “223 members of the House of Representatives signed a bipartisan letter to you outlining our opposition to any such fee. Previous Republican and Democratic administrations have proposed such a fee, and it has always been repeatedly rejected by a broad bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives.
“Commercial and general aviation are vital to the economic well-being of the nation,” the letter said. “Aviation manufacturing and associated industries provide important American jobs and employment opportunity.”
“Your continued support for any proposal to implement a per-flight fee on commercial and general aviation would only serve to undermine the strength of our aviation transportation system and the jobs that rely on this important segment of our nation’s economy. We respectfully request that you not advance such a proposal in your upcoming budget plan.”
Read the entire letter here.
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I hope to h-ll AOPA is trying to elect Republicans. We don’t need the country hosed any further by Democrats.
Wow, an admission that previous administrations have proposed this fee, and it has been opposed on both sides of the aisle.
Under the previous leadership of AOPA a partisan invective would have been dictated to the committee replete with the insinuation that the user fee was some sort of communist plot invented by Obama.
Could it be that AOPA is actually concentrating on aviation issues, and not just trying to elect Republicans? I sincerely hope so.
We need real leadership to defeat this OMB sponsored fee. OMB inserts it in budget after budget no matter who is in the Whitehouse, or what political party holds sway in either chamber.