A troubling plan to privatize air traffic control has passed through a House committee, paving the way for a vote in the full House and then for Senate consideration. The justification for the plan is another extension of the Republican mission to break government and then use the fact that it’s broken to abolish or privatize it. The claim here is that the FAA hasn’t been quick enough to modernize air traffic control systems—but the FAA has been repeatedly hobbled by funding interruptions and cuts.
Republicans don't want to fix things. They just want to turn this crucial safety system over to private business. It’s not like there aren’t ways to start fixing the existing problems:
The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, proposed to scrap Shuster’s proposal and protect FAA from congressional meddling by making its funding automatic, rather than subject to annual decisions from lawmakers, with an overhaul of personnel and procurement policies. But his amendment was rejected on a 25-34 vote.
Most of the airline industry supports the plan, though Delta is opposed. The National Air Traffic Controllers Union, after long pushing for better funding for the air traffic control system, recently more or less threw its hands up and said fine, if this is the way to more stable funding than we’re for it. The Air Line Pilots Association remains opposed.