Thomas E. Petri: “Mr. Chairman, this provision would gut much of the ongoing high-priority work of the Department of Transportation…”

“Mr. Chairman, this provision would gut much of the ongoing high-priority work of the Department of Transportation Aviation Enforcement Office by requiring most of its resources to be dedicated to consumers' complaints. While I certainly agree that consumer complaint oversight is important, the dedication of so many resources to only one issue is just not right. This provision would force the Aviation Enforcement Office to stop other important aviation enforcement, compliance, and consumer information and education activities that have for years been a priority for that office. This provision would do so by requiring the investigation of each consumer complaint regarding flight cancellations, overbooking, baggage, refunds, fares and related conditions, frequent flier programs and deceptive or misleading advertising. Currently, the only investigations that have been required by Congress are disability-related complaints. Sadly, to comply with this provision, the Aviation Enforcement Office would have to discontinue enforcement and compliance work involving racial, ethnic and sex-based discrimination, compliance with the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act, public charter flight violations, and code sharing disclosure violations.”