[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6434-6435]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                         AIRLINE ACCOUNTABILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Turner) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TURNER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the CEO of United Airlines, Oscar 
Munoz, apologized to the House Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure for his company having dragged a passenger off of one of 
their aircraft. Mr. Munoz highlighted the policy changes the airline 
has made since the wake of the incident.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that Congress should hold the airlines 
accountable and ensure that the events like what happened to Dr. Dao 
are prevented.
  When United Airlines had Dr. Dao forcibly removed on April 9, the 
airline more than just created a disruption for him and other 
passengers; it sparked a national outrage. Dr. Dao was bumped from his 
flight by a crew member of United in line with the then-airline's 
policies that crews could book seats on United flights until flights 
departed.
  An airline's lack of preparation for its own staff's travel should 
not result in the disruption of the lives of its paying customers. Now 
crew members of United are required to make must-ride bookings at least 
1 hour prior to departure, and they are not able to displace customers 
who are already on board.

[[Page 6435]]

  However, today, I believe that we need to go further. This still has 
travelers at risk. So today, I am introducing the Hands Off Passengers 
Act or the HOP Act. This bill requires the Secretary of Transportation 
to modify a regulation regarding the involuntary deplaning or the 
denial of boarding of a flight by any passenger on an oversold flight 
merely to accommodate a member of the airline flight crew or staff. In 
other words, it prevents an airline from bumping ticketed passengers of 
an overbooked flight merely for the travel of one of the airline's 
crews.
  Airlines should be better prepared on the movement of their crew to 
avoid the disruption of the lives of paying customers.

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