WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, responded with the following statement to the president’s announcement regarding changes to the American Air Traffic Control system.

“It astounds me how every day President Trump manages to find a new way to dismantle America’s national security and world leadership. Privatizing America’s air traffic control system – the most complex in the world – will do irreparable harm to the safety of America’s skies, the security of the communities they serve, and our nation’s economy at every level. Saying something will be better and ‘great’ does not make it so. His great example of Canadian privatization cost flyers a 599 percent increase in fees after the switchover. The facts clearly are irrelevant to him. And I look forward to hearing how the Department of Defense will respond to having a new non-government entity manage their airspace and the defense of America’s skies.

“Predictably, the president continues to check items off the conservative Republican wish list without thought of the negative repercussions for the American people or the billions of taxpayer dollars he wants to waste.”

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