President Trump was supposed to drain the swamp, not fill it wings. Over the weekend, Daniel Elwell effectively took the helm of the Federal Aviation Administration. Prior to coming to the agency, Elwell did two things: He flew big planes and lobbied the federal government.
The president must be pleased with those qualifications. Unsure who was running the agency or whether or not that chairman had his pilot’s license shortly after taking office, Trump said it “would be good to have a pilot” in that role.
And by all accounts, Elwell appears to be a good pilot. He earned his wings after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy, flew a C-141 military cargo plane during Operation Desert Storm, and then piloted everything from little MD-80 to big DC-10 jets. But his career took off when he came to Washington.
For more than 15 years, Elwell has worked as an industry lobbyist. While working as managing director for government affairs at American Airlines, he lobbied Congress on everything from spending on the Iraq War to the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. Eventually, he landed a job as a senior vice president with Airlines for America which just so happens to be the largest trade group representing almost all of the nation’s major airlines.
That resume is now of comfort to his old industry friends. Soon Congress will try to pass a long-term reauthorization of the agency. He will be there to guide the process, and to look out for aviation interests, from start to finish.
Why does any of this matter so long as planes take off and land safely? Well for starters, it means that an aviation lobbyist—a friend of the people that scrunches passengers into tiny seats, that almost always overbooks flights, and that overcharge for everything—is now regulating the aviation industry.
