The transportation committee in the Senate lacks the votes necessary to advance a plan by President Trump to privatize the country’s air traffic control system, according to the panel’s chairman.
“No, we don’t have the votes to pass that in our committee at the moment,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee told reporters on Tuesday.
Trump’s plan is to create a nonprofit organization to run air traffic control at the nation’s airports — taking it away from the Federal Aviation Administration. Thune said that the House will have to take the lead on Trump’s air traffic proposal if it is to proceed successfully.
“We’ll see what the House is able to do and we’ll proceed accordingly. But if that issue were to get addressed, it would probably have to be on the floor in conference.”
Trump says the privatization plan would make travel easier and cheaper.
His idea mirrors a proposal offered last year by Rep. Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, that never made it to the House floor.
The measure would likely be attached to a FAA reauthorization bill that expires at the end of September.
If the Senate were unable to make progress on the plan, it would be a blow to Trump, who highlighted the air traffic control privatization proposal on the opening day the administration’s “infrastructure week” earlier this month.
