The recent government shutdown should have shown the country once and for all that there has to be a better way to fund airport security and air traffic controllers.
The sad reality is that we can no longer rely on elected politicians to safeguard our interests, let alone put them first. The safety of the traveling public should be non-negotiable.
Yet, every so often, the government shuts down because our leaders are unable to perform one of their most basic functions: passing a budget. Failing to do so threatens the safety of the traveling public.
If we had true leadership in this country, we might consider an alternate funding mechanism. Our federal overlords should look for a way to set aside funding that isn’t tied to politicians’ whims. It shouldn’t be beholden to a budget that elected officials themselves are incapable of passing.
One idea worth considering is creating a trust fund into which fees, such as those paid by the general public or airport landing fees, are deposited to cover the costs of air traffic controllers and transportation security personnel. The hope is that Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration operations could continue uninterrupted amid a federal government shutdown.
Now, this has been tried multiple times with varied success, including with the Highway and Social Security trust funds.
The ultimate problem is that politicians like money, and they have no moral qualms about diverting funds set aside for a specific purpose to fund their own pet projects. So, we hear the sob stories of federal workers showing up to their jobs with no guarantee of payment, while travelers are left to wonder whether flying is safe amid the shutdown.
Most of the TSA’s $11.8 billion budget is directly from congressional appropriations, while about 65% of the FRA’s $26 billion budget is from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which includes revenue from aviation excise taxes, including on passenger tickets and air cargo.
It’s time to remove politicians from the mix.
Could this work? Yes. Will it work? Probably not.
It likely will never work as long as partisan and political interests are at the forefront in Washington, DC. More than anything, we need new thinking about how we fund the services millions use and rely on every day.
It’s unreasonable to expect workers to show up for their shifts without guaranteed payment. Would private enterprises be allowed to force people to work without a guaranteed paycheck? No. So why is the federal government allowed to do this?
In typical government fashion, its rules for thee, not for me.
Yet, luckily for travelers, thousands of TSA and FAA employees did so. In doing so, they acted more professionally than the “leaders” we elect and expect to act like mature adults.
In some ways, it’s hard to blame the politicians. They just do what they can get away with, and they’re generally not solutions-oriented.
Ultimately, the fault lies with us, and we should demand more of our elected officials; they should represent us and keep us, the traveling public, safe. That isn’t something that anybody should want to debate.