<\/p>\n
March 24, 2020<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Media contact: National Consumers League \u2013 Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242\u202for\u00a0Taun\u00a0Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202)\u202f207-2832<\/p>\n
Washington, DC–The\u00a0National Consumers League, America\u2019s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, today called on leaders in the U.S.\u00a0Senate and\u00a0House of Representatives\u00a0to support the\u00a0consumer protection provisions in\u00a0the\u00a0\u201cTake Responsibility for Workers and Families Act,\u201d\u00a0(H.R. 6379)<\/a>\u00a0the COVID-19 relief legislation introduced by\u00a0Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY). These provisions would prohibit airline price gouging\u00a0(Sec. 601) and require full cash refunds for cancelled flights\u00a0(Sec. 602)\u00a0during the national COVID-19\u00a0emergency. In addition, the bill would require that airlines provide quarterly reports to the Department of Transportation on the revenue they\u00a0collect from baggage, change\/cancellation, seat reservations, and other add-on fees.<\/p>\n NCL, along with a coalition of consumer and passenger rights groups, last week\u00a0called on Congress<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0include\u00a0a series of consumer protection measures\u00a0in any airline bailout legislation. The proposed protections would\u00a0address passengers\u2019 concerns during the current emergency as well as\u00a0broader structural issues in the airline industry going forward.<\/p>\n The following statement is attributable to\u00a0John\u00a0Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy,\u00a0Telecommunications and Fraud\u00a0at\u00a0the National Consumers League:<\/p>\n “A functioning airline industry is vital to America\u2019s economy during this time of national emergency. Congressional leaders\u00a0must\u00a0not lose sight of the fact that passengers are the lifeblood of that industry.\u00a0Congressional\u00a0Democrats\u2019\u00a0COVID-19 relief bill contains many, but not all,\u00a0of the\u00a0protections that\u00a0airline passenger groups, including NCL, requested.\u00a0While it is not a perfect bill, we urge leaders in the Senate and House\u00a0to\u00a0work together to ensure that the\u00a0proposed\u00a0protections are not watered down at the behest of the airline lobby as negotiations progress toward a final package.\u201d<\/p>\n —————–<\/p>\n About the National Consumers League<\/strong><\/p>\n The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneering consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit\u00a0www.nclnet.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 24, 2020 Media contact: National Consumers League \u2013 Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242\u202for\u00a0Taun\u00a0Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202)\u202f207-2832 Washington, DC–The\u00a0National Consumers League, America\u2019s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, today called on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[285,14,420,275,279,280,277],"tags":[412],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3356"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17796,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3356\/revisions\/17796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}