The control of the air traffic operations will change drastically as the government will give the responsibility to a private nonprofit corporation. This move will change the management of Washington Aviation system.
The new regulation will give the new management six years to uphold its duties. But the Federal Aviation Administration will continue to monitor aviation safety including the safety of air traffic operations. This will also include the prohibitions of cellular phones usage while on the flight and the monitoring of baggage.
The FAA would fully give the responsibility to the federally chartered air traffic control corporation for the day to day traffic control system which will eventually be changed to a satellite type technology. This new regulation would also transfer hundreds of facilities and around 38,000 worker to the new management.
Rep. Bill Shuster, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said that this transformational solution is really needed for the modernization of the air traffic system. He added that without this, air congestion will not subside as the growing demand for air traffic increases. The chairman also plans to change the finance operation of the air traffic operations.
Commercial air cargo transport, airlines, taxis and other commercial services would be charge with a new tax form accordingly. Although it will be up to the House Ways and Means Committee on how the new tax reform will take place. Private pilots and noncommercial aircraft though will pay the same tax they had before the reform.
It is still unclear if the new regulations would change the rates that commercial services are charging due to the changes on the tax bracket. But aside from this concern, the government is hoping that it will greatly increase the efficiency of how airports will be operated and at the same time reduce the overall operational cost.
Senior Democrat on the committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio, on the other hand, was against the privatization. He said that this will only create monopoly and would take away the power from its citizens. He added that it will give the private company the chance to tax the public heavily and give away billions of dollars' worth of public assets to the private company for free.
