Congress Abandons Anti-Bizjet Provision
On Tuesday night, with no fanfare whatsoever, Congress left out a provision of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) that would have prohibited TARP beneficiaries from using bizjets. No word on exactly why the provision was deleted, but NBAA, among other aviation member organizations, is delighted. In a release on Wednesday, NBAA President Ed Bolen put it nicely, saying “Congress has clearly recognized that it is important to provide Americans with strong oversight of the federal dollars in the TARP program, but that the language addressing business aviation had the potential to fuel job losses for countless people in the general aviation community.” The bill looked to be headed for approval by as early as Thursday.
Hmm… I can see both sides here. You don’t want the jobs to be lost by forcing the business execs who got their company into the problems they are in to fly commercial, but you want the business execs to fly commercial because they don’t deserve to fly in luxury if they squander their company’s fortunes. For example, Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler ended up sacking their aviation units after getting called out on flying in private jets to Washington to beg for money.
Double-edged sword here; do you fuel more job losses by forcing them to fly commercial as an oversight provision of TARP, or let them be to fly any way they can with no oversight, and keep people working?
