Another Letter On Love Field & Congressional Action
On Wednesday, Professor Darren Bush sent to Congress a response to the letter from the Hogan & Hartson and Vinson & Elkins. Here is the letter: Letter to Judiciary Related to Love Field.pdf.
Also this week, the Fort-Worth Star Telegram reported that:
The House Judiciary Committee changed the dynamics of the Wright Amendment legislation Wednesday by quickly removing antitrust protections from the bill that seeks to remove federal flight restrictions at Dallas Love Field. The action creates a conundrum for the stakeholders: Can the agreement hold up without antitrust protection, can the North Texas delegation deliver the version of the bill previously passed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and can Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, produce a compromise in the Senate that would then be passed by the House? And can all this happen by the year-end deadline for the deal? The sword of Damocles for the Wright Amendment supporters: If the deal falls apart, next year the congressional debate reverts to outright repeal. … House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., joined by the ranking Democrat, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., proposed an amendment that removes the antitrust immunity in the bill and inserts additional language reinforcing that nothing in the law governing Dallas Love Field “shall modify, impair, or supersede the operation of the antitrust laws.” It passed on a voice vote. “What this amendment does is state that the antitrust aspects will be litigated,” Sensenbrenner said. “What we’re saying is that the antitrust laws are there for a purpose.” Conyers, joining the chairman in an unusual show of bipartisanship, said, “I’m not here to say the agreement is pro-competitive or anti-competitive.” Rather, he said, he was also supporting the antitrust laws as the protector of consumers.
The article is lengthy, detailed, and a good read.
Technorati Tags: Love Field, antitrust, Wright Amendment
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