As Americans face flight delays and cancellations due to the Schumer Shutdown, Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards makes the case that the time to privatize the FAA—or at least make it independent of the federal budget process—is now. He writes:
Air traffic control (ATC) is becoming air traffic “chaos,” as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned on October 4. As employees of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), air traffic controllers are not being paid under the government shutdown. Some are staying home, which is causing flight delays and cancellations across the country.
Such budget-driven chaos is unnecessary, as we don’t need to embed ATC within our dysfunctional government. I’ve championed ATC privatization based on the Canadian model. The government doesn’t build airplanes, and nor should it be guiding them through the skies. ATC is a high-tech industry needing flexibility, top talent, leading-edge innovation—and funding stability.
Short of privatization, Reason’s Robert Poole argues that we should at least move ATC out of the bureaucracy. He says that 98 countries have insulated their ATC from politics by moving it into a user-funded organization outside the government budget. Poole notes that “our airlines, passengers, and air traffic controllers would be spared the present miseries” if Congress were to separate ATC operations from our failing FAA.
Action Line: The federal government shutdown is a reminder that finding solutions outside of government is always preferable to adding to the bloated, debt-laden beast in Washington, D.C. You can see a chart of America’s perilous debt growth below. It’s long past time to find ways to shrink government. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
