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Federal legislation mandating that airlines provide passengers trapped on grounded airplanes with food, water and working toilet facilities, as well as the right to deplane, is stalled in Congress, congressional aides and aviation experts said yesterday.
The so-called "Passengers Bill of Rights Law" is attached to a broader measure - now bollixed up in the Senate - to provide overall funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, including money to modernize the nation's aging air-traffic control system.
Similar efforts on the state level in New York suffered a blow Tuesday when a federal appellate court in Manhattan struck down a state air passenger rights law that took effect Jan. 1. The court said the federal government - not individual states - has jurisdiction over airlines.
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is reviewing the appellate court decision, a spokesman said.
The federal proposal got stuck last fall, along with the broader bill that it became part of. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who has since stepped down from the Senate, objected to the Federal Aviation Administration legislation because it did not include a requirement that corporate jets pay a $25-per-flight "user fee" to go toward upgrading air-traffic control systems and airports.
The "Passengers Bill of Rights," sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), passed the House but remains tied up in two Senate committees with little chance of gaining approval this year. Steven Broderick, a spokesman for Rockefeller, who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee on aviation operations, safety and security, said Rockefeller supported it.
"The bill is a good thing," Broderick said. "But it doesn't solve the real problem. The air-traffic control system has to be modernized." Corporate jets, Rockefeller said, must pay a larger share toward that effort.
Long Island members of Congress and New York's junior senator agreed passenger rights should be a federal matter.
"This is a role for Congress and I think we should address the issue," Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) said through a spokesman.
Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), who sits on the House Transportation Committee, said several issues have stalled the FAA authorization and, therefore, the passenger bill of rights in the Senate.
"Maybe what we need to do is put 100 senators on a JetBlue airplane for eight hours without clean drinking water and restrooms," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington).
Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Jamaica Estates), whose district straddles the Queens-Nassau border, called the appeals court decision "an open invitation to have a federal solution based on New York's pioneering effort."
The office of the Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said in a statement, "The federal government has a responsibility to protect the health and safety of millions of travelers who utilize the airline industry every year."
