US House-passed bill corrects overcharging for multiple flight stops

US Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow issued the following statement on House passage of HR 5462, which would cap a fee charged on air passengers to fund Transportation Security Administration (TSA) activities:

“The bill corrects a fundamental flaw in the most recent adjustment to the TSA fee, which caused some travelers to be charged the fee more than once-in some cases more than $20 extra – if their trip consisted of one or more flight connections. TSA’s activities are obviously vital, but the travel community objected to the agency’s implementation phase of the fee change, and we’re grateful to Transportation Security Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson for seeing through this effort to correct it.

“However, even with this notable improvement, we still believe the current TSA fee fails to meet a critical criterion for acceptable travel user fees. As designed by Congress, a limited portion of the funds raised go to fund TSA operations, with the rest available for use on unrelated projects. That violates our core principle that user fees must, in their entirety, benefit the users who pay them.

“We will continue to work with Congress toward funding mechanisms that maximize efficiency, transparency and value, and delivers to the American people what they expect and deserve: a transportation infrastructure that is the finest in the world, bar none.”