A former key lawmaker revisited the concept of air traffic control privatization during an Aero Club of Washington luncheon last week, saying the issue needs to be reconsidered. According to Washington insider publication Politico, former Rep. Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican who chaired the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2013 through 2018 and strongly pushed for privatization during his tenure, told Aero Club luncheon attendees, “I think we should take it out of government, commercialize it, or make a non-for-profit similar to that was the idea that I had six years ago.”

Shuster, now a senior policy advisor for the multinational law firm Squire Patton Boggs, added, “I think that’s something that needs to be considered again” given the results surrounding the agency.

FAA reauthorization bills have stalled over highly contentious debates over air traffic control reform and user fees in past decades. Shuster, unable to move reauthorization with an ATC privatization measure, ultimately stripped his provision from the 2018 FAA bill. However, the issue is unlikely to come up as part of an FAA reauthorization bill given Congress just passed the most recent five-year legislation last year.

But it is a concept strongly supported by conservative organizations such as the Reason Foundation and Heritage Foundation, which continue to push for smaller government and have the ears of some of the potential incoming cabinet members, notably the candidate for the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought.

The issue of either privatization or user fees further has been promoted in some fashion by nearly every administration over the past four decades.

“As we know, over several decades, the notion of privatizing air traffic control has been thoroughly debated by Congress,” NBAA said in a statement in response to the Shuster comments. “Each time, lawmakers' bipartisan decision to shelve ATC privatization reflects not only an understanding of the flaws in other countries' privatized systems but opposition to ATC privatization by the American public, a host of aviation groups, organizations on the political left and right, local elected officials, and others.”