Here is a letter that Travelers United sent to all members of the Highway Bill Conference Committee yesterday (Nov. 17, 2015). Travelers United has learned that the budget committee came up with a program that will collect customs and immigration inspection fees from airline passengers and divert them to pay for the highway bill.
Worse! Travelers by automobile, coming into the country by road, will not have to pay this fee — only us lonely and supposedly rich airline travelers.
Travelers United’s letter asks Congress that the $5.7 billion in CBP fees created by its increase be eliminated as a pay-for for the surface transportation bill. It just isn’t right. Making air travelers pay for the highway bill is plain wrong and unfair.
A fee is a fee is a fee, not a tax. Fees are collected for specific purposes. Taxes are for general revenue.
Let your Senator or Representative know this kind of action is unacceptable and unfair.
Dear Highway Bill Conferee:
Travelers United strongly opposes any suggestion that highway funding be generated via an increase in the aviation passenger’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) fees. This kind of bait and switch funding and budget shenanigans are what engender cynical responses from voters and a distrust of Congress.
Consumers have been steadfastly fighting such behavior from airlines with their unjustified ancillary fees, from cruise lines with their attempts to increase unwarranted port fees and from hotels with their hidden mandatory fees that should be part of the room rate.
Now, Congress is taking a page from the same book of deception, by increasing the CBP fees collected for a specific purpose, and then stealing them from the aviation passengers who pay them to fund a completely different function — in this case, the funding of the surface transportation bill. It is not right and leaves a sour taste in the mouths of consumers across the country.
It would be far better for the integrity of Congress to find ways to fund this bill without robbing the airline consumers, who already bear an unfair burden of these CBP fees. Train travelers don’t pay these fees and automobile passengers crossing the borders via highways that the bill is supposed to support don’t pay these CBP fees.
We request the $5.7 billion in CBP fees be eliminated from consideration as a possible pay-for for the surface transportation bill. It simply is not fair to airline consumers to blatantly divert fees collected to improve the CBP programs to other purposes.
Travelers United shares the goal of passing a long-term surface transportation bill; after all, almost all of us drive. However, we urge you to ensure that basic principles of fairness are upheld. Aviation passengers should not bear this unfair burden.
Travelers United is a non-profit that directly represents 23,000 nationwide consumers and an affiliated group of more than a million consumers in their efforts to maintain fair customer treatment as passengers on airlines, cruise lines and other modes of transportation. Travelers United has testified regularly before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee regarding aviation consumer protections.
Consumers urge your committee to do the fair and right thing.
Sincerely,
Charles Leocha
Chairman, Travelers United
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 11 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
