December 19, 2016

Over 100 Members of Congress Urge President-Elect Trump to Protect American Jobs and Security, Reject NAI

Washington, D.C. – Today, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Aviation Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Aviation Rick Larsen (D-WA), and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee member John Katko (R-NY) led over 100 Members of Congress on a bipartisan letter to President-elect Donald J. Trump, urging him to reverse a decision by the U.S. Department of Transportation to allow Norwegian Air International (NAI) to operate routes between the U.S. and Europe.

 

NAI has established itself in Ireland, where labor laws permit the airline to hire its pilots and flight attendants on individual employment contracts under non-European law in order to cut costs.  NAI’s overt practice of labor forum-shopping violates our Open Skies agreement with Norway and the European Union and gives it an unfair competitive advantage in the transatlantic market.

 

“On December 2, 2016, the Department of Transportation (DOT) made a grievously wrong decision to grant Norwegian Air International a foreign air carrier permit for U.S.-Europe air services. Given your commitment to protecting American jobs and our national security, we strongly urge you, on Day One of your presidency, to revoke or suspend the permit until Norwegian changes its business model to a model that does not rely on a flag of convenience and threaten America’s international aviation industry and our national security,” the members wrote.

A full copy of the letter can be found below.

 

 

December 20, 2016

 

 

The Honorable Donald J. Trump
The President-elect
1717 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006

Dear Mr. President-elect:

On December 2, 2016, the Department of Transportation (DOT) made a grievously wrong decision to grant Norwegian Air International a foreign air carrier permit for U.S.-Europe air services. Given your commitment to protecting American jobs and our national security, we strongly urge you, on Day One of your presidency, to revoke or suspend the permit until Norwegian changes its business model to a model that does not rely on a flag of convenience and threaten America’s international aviation industry and our national security.

Norwegian is “Norwegian” in name only: Its crews work under short-term contracts, many governed under Singapore law; some crewmembers are based in Bangkok; and the company is organized and regulated in Ireland. It is, for all intents and purposes, a virtual airline. Norwegian is the first airline in the transatlantic market to fly under a flag of convenience, but the Department’s recent decision guarantees Norwegian will not be the last.

If the DOT’s decision stands, other airlines are likely to follow suit and organize subsidiaries in foreign countries with lax labor laws, tax loopholes, or weak safety and security oversight. Global civil aviation will devolve into a system that relies on flags of convenience. This race to the bottom will threaten the viability of U.S. airlines and their fleets of widebody aircraft that comprise the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF). Under the CRAF program, airlines volunteer parts of their fleets for military use during national emergencies and in times of war. More than 130 widebody aircraft in the United States’ three major long-haul carriers’ fleets were available for mobilization by the Department of Defense under the CRAF program as of January 2016. However, if U.S. carriers find themselves unable to compete with other airlines that copy Norwegian’s flag-of-convenience business model, U.S. airlines will downsize their widebody fleets, and our ability to move troops and materiel will suffer substantially. National security, as well as American jobs, is on the line.

The U.S.-E.U.-Iceland-Norway Open Skies agreement opened the transatlantic aviation market. Norwegian and every airline in the market benefit from the right under the agreement to fly from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Europe. In creating this lucrative right, however, the agreement included protections to ensure fairness in the transatlantic aviation market.

The DOT ignored those protections, as well as well-established law prohibiting a decision inconsistent with those protections, in granting Norwegian’s permit, and our country will pay a price for that failure of responsibility. We will pay that price as we watch a race to the bottom among airlines that are forced to compete with Norwegian. Moreover, while Norwegian chose the safe harbor of a country whose labor laws permit forum-shopping for the cheapest labor, the next airline to fly under a flag of convenience may choose the safe harbor of an opportunistic country with weak safety and security regulations, with serious consequences for safety and national security.

We strongly urge you to correct the Department’s mistake. We urge you, on Day One of your presidency, to start the process necessary to revoke or suspend Norwegian’s permit.

Thank you for your consideration of our views.

 

Sincerely,

 

            ____________________                                            ____________________

Peter DeFazio                                                                 Frank A. LoBiondo

Ranking Member                                                           Member of Congress

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

 

 

 

            ____________________                                            ____________________

            Rick Larsen                                                                 John Katko

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

            ____________________                                            ____________________

    Marcy Kaptur                                                             Peter J. Visclosky

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

            ____________________                                            ____________________

    John Lewis                                                                  Fred Upton

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

 

____________________                                            ____________________

    Frank Pallone, Jr.                                                        José E. Serrano

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Rosa DeLauro                                                             Collin Peterson

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Jerrold Nadler                                                             Xavier Becerra

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Anna G. Eshoo                                                            Alcee L. Hastings

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Eddie Bernice Johnson                                               Lucille Roybal-Allard

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

____________________                                            ____________________

    Nydia Velazquez                                                         Mike Thompson

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

____________________                                            ____________________

    Michael F. Doyle                                                        Walter Jones

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

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    Zoe Lofgren                                                                Elijah Cummings

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Diana DeGette                                                            Ron Kind

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Jim McGovern                                                            Bill Pascrell, Jr.

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

____________________                                            ____________________

    Pete Sessions                                                              Adam Smith

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Barbara Lee                                                                Robert A. Brady

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    Michael E. Capuano                                                   Joe Crowley

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Grace F. Napolitano                                                    Janice D. Schakowsky

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

____________________                                            ____________________

    James R. Langevin                                                      Betty McCollum

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

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    Stephen F. Lynch                                                        C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

____________________                                            ____________________

    Tim Ryan                                                                    Linda T. Sánchez

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

____________________                                            ____________________

    David Scott                                                                 Brian Higgins

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    Daniel Lipinski                                                           Gwen Moore

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Albio Sires                                                                  Keith Ellison

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr.                                    David Loebsack

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

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    Ed Perlmutter                                                              Peter Welch

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

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    Jackie Speier                                                                           Richard M. Nolan

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Gerald E. Connolly                                                     Duncan Hunter

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    Ben Ray Lujan                                                            Paul D. Tonko

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

____________________                                            ____________________

    Mike Quigley                                                              Judy Chu

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    John Garamendi                                                          Mike Fitzpatrick

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Bill Foster                                                                   Mo Brooks

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Bob Gibbs                                                                   William R. Keating

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    David McKinley                                                         James B. Renacci

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    Suzanne Bonamici                                                      Suzan DelBene

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Donald M. Payne, Jr.                                                  Alan Grayson

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Julia Brownley                                                            Tony Cardenas

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Elizabeth H. Esty                                                        Paul Cook

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Rodney Davis                                                             Lois Frankel

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Jared Huffman                                                            Hakeem Jeffries

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    David P. Joyce                                                            Alan Lowenthal

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Michelle Lujan Grisham                                             Sean Patrick Maloney

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Scott Peters                                                                 Mark Pocan

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Kyrsten Sinema                                                           Alma S. Adams

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Donald Norcross                                                         Mike Bost

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Brendan F. Boyle                                                        Ryan A. Costello

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    Carlos Curbelo                                                            Mark DeSaulnier

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Debbie Dingell                                                            Ruben Gallego

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Ted W. Lieu                                                                Seth Moulton

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Kathleen M. Rice                                                        Lee Zeldin

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Madeleine Z. Bordallo                                                Eleanor Holmes Norton

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

 

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    Stacey E. Plaskett

    Member of Congress         

 

 

 

 

 

 

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    Louise Slaughter                                                         Lou Barletta

    Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress

 

 

 

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 Sander M. Levin                                                            Jared Polis

Member of Congress                                                  Member of Congress