The Senate continues to work on what’s been dubbed the president’s “big, beautiful bill” this week.
It’s a massive tax and spending plan hitting several parts of the federal government. And in recent weeks, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has landed on the GOP’s radar.
It’s all of 17 lines out of 33 pages from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, but it orders the federal government to renegotiate the lease it has with MWAA — leases that were just signed last year and run through the year 2100.
Currently, MWAA pays about $7.5 million a year to operate the otherwise federally-owned airports. Over time, that number will go up, but under the proposal coming from Congress, it would double starting in 2027. MWAA would have to renegotiate the lease every 10 years going forward, raising those costs on an annual basis.
“That would drive up costs to the airports,” warned Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, in a one-on-one interview with WTOP’s John Domen.
Warner said it’s being used as a way to make the math work better on a bill that the Congressional Budget Office said will still increase the deficit by trillions of dollars in the years to come.
“That number in cost savings would mean that the airports authority would have to eat those costs that would simply be then passed on to the airlines, that would then be passed on to the passengers,” Warner said.
Those increases would happen through the various taxes and fees airlines charge you when you book a flight. Among those is a facilities charge which is usually worth a few bucks — the exact number varies by airport and airline — but is not the highest tax or fee associated with flying.
In a statement, MWAA told WTOP it doesn’t profit from running the airports now, and if extra revenue is generated by those facility fees, it gets allocated toward keeping “operating costs competitive, as well as reinvesting in airport maintenance and infrastructure projects.”
Warner blamed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for the provision during a meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments last week.
“This would add enormous additional costs back,” Warner told the local leaders during that meeting. “It would really hit MWAA in a dramatic way and it seems to be more based in spite than in policy.”
WTOP reached out to Cruz’s press office twice for comment, but so far, there’s been no response.
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