FAIR Fees Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5195 To prohibit air carriers from imposing fees that are not reasonable and proportional to the costs incurred by the air carriers, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 20, 2019 Mr. COHEN (for himself, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. NORTON, Mr. SIRES, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. RUSH, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. MOORE, and Mr. GRIJALVA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To prohibit air carriers from imposing fees that are not reasonable and proportional to the costs incurred by the air carriers, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Forbid Airlines from 4 Imposing Ridiculous Fees Act of 2019’’ or the ‘‘FAIR 5 Fees Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:08 Nov 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5195.IH H5195 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 5195 IH SEC. 2. REGULATIONS PROHIBITING THE IMPOSITION OF 1 FEES THAT ARE NOT REASONABLE AND PRO- 2 PORTIONAL TO THE COSTS INCURRED. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 270 days after the 4 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Trans- 5 portation shall prescribe regulations— 6 (1) prohibiting an air carrier from imposing 7 fees described in subsection (b) that are unreason- 8 able or disproportional to the costs incurred by the 9 air carrier; and 10 (2) establishing standards for assessing whether 11 such fees are reasonable and proportional to the 12 costs incurred by the air carrier. 13 (b) FEES DESCRIBED.—The fees described in this 14 subsection are— 15 (1) any fee for a change or cancellation of a 16 reservation for a flight in interstate air transpor- 17 tation; 18 (2) any fee relating to checked baggage to be 19 transported on a flight in interstate air transpor- 20 tation; and 21 (3) any other fee imposed by an air carrier re- 22 lating to a flight in interstate air transportation. 23 (c) CONSIDERATIONS.—In establishing the standards 24 required by subsection (a)(2), the Secretary shall con- 25 sider— 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:08 Nov 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5195.IH H5195 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 5195 IH (1) with respect to a fee described in subsection 1 (b)(1) imposed by an air carrier for a change or can- 2 cellation of a flight reservation— 3 (A) any net benefit or cost to the air car- 4 rier from the change or cancellation, taking into 5 consideration— 6 (i) the ability of the air carrier to an- 7 ticipate the expected average number of 8 cancellations and changes and make res- 9 ervations accordingly; 10 (ii) the ability of the air carrier to fill 11 a seat made available by a change or can- 12 cellation; 13 (iii) any difference in the fare likely to 14 be paid for a ticket sold to another pas- 15 senger for a seat made available by the 16 change or cancellation, as compared to the 17 fare paid by the passenger who changed or 18 canceled the passenger’s reservation; and 19 (iv) the likelihood that the passenger 20 changing or canceling the passenger’s res- 21 ervation will fill a seat on another flight by 22 the same air carrier; 23 (B) the costs of processing the change or 24 cancellation electronically; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:08 Nov 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5195.IH H5195 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 5195 IH (C) any related labor costs; 1 (2) with respect to a fee described in subsection 2 (b)(2) imposed by an air carrier relating to checked 3 baggage— 4 (A) the costs of processing checked bag- 5 gage electronically; and 6 (B) any related labor costs; and 7 (3) any other considerations the Secretary con- 8 siders appropriate. 9 (d) UPDATED REGULATIONS.—The Secretary shall 10 update the standards required by subsection (a)(2) not 11 less frequently than every 3 years. 12 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 13 (1) AIR CARRIER.—The term ‘‘air carrier’’ 14 means any air carrier that holds an air carrier cer- 15 tificate under section 41101 of title 49, United 16 States Code. 17 (2) INTERSTATE AIR TRANSPORTATION.—The 18 term ‘‘interstate air transportation’’ has the mean- 19 ing given that term in section 40102 of title 49, 20 United States Code. 21 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:08 Nov 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5195.IH H5195 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS