Ed Markey: “Thank you, Mr. President. It is Congress's obligation to protect the public from abusive practices that harm consumers…”

“Thank you, Mr. President. It is Congress's obligation to protect the public from abusive practices that harm consumers and dull the competitive process. Regrettably, Congress has failed to fulfill that obligation with the FAA reauthorization bill. With this bill, Congress has missed a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to stop gargantuan airlines from gouging Americans with exorbitant fees. Last year, Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, and I secured a provision in the Senate FAA reauthorization bill that would protect passengers from ridiculous, sky-high airline fees. Our FAIR Fees--Forbidding Airlines from Imposing Ridiculous Fees--provision directed the Department of Transportation to, No. 1, assess whether change and cancellation, baggage, and other fees are reasonable and proportional to the costs of the services which are being provided, and secondly, to ensure that change and cancellation fees are reasonable. Airline fees would be fair and reasonable--that is all the provision did. The reason we need that is simple. In a truly competitive industry, an airline would be unable to charge unreasonable fees because their competitors would undercut their prices. Darwinian, paranoia-inducing competition would drive down fees to reflect the actual costs of the services provided--the cost to check a bag, the cost to change a flight reservation, the cost of booking a passenger on standby for an earlier flight. Fair and reasonable.…”