Leaders must help, and prod airlines

Courage. We need it. For families who have suffered loss, or will in months to come. For a stock market that has lost its nerve. For rank-and-file Americans whose decisions whether to spend and travel are having a serious effect. And, for our leaders.

Last week, our representatives in Congress struggled over one of many truly tough decisions they must make in our behalf: Aid to the airline industry.

Americans who watched the debate on C-SPAN saw reasons to be proud. And reasons for frustration, too.

Moving with unusual but appropriate speed, Congress convened a hearing where it listened to and grilled the airline industry's CEOs. Members asked the right questions, making use of their diverse concerns. A member with experience on Wall Street delved into chilling moves by banks to cut off the airlines' financing. Members who care about labor demanded why corporations should get aid, but not their workers hurt by massive layoffs. Members who have fought the airlines for years for passenger rights and safety demanded more adequate measures now. Members who represent smaller cities fretted that airlines may cancel less profitable routes on which their communities depend.

Debate like this is what eventually leads to respectable legislation.

So long as Congress retains the concern it showed last week, there is hope for further legislation - and it certainly is needed.

The driving force behind Friday's bailout bill was a focused awareness that the airlines support much of our economy. It was an act of war, followed by a government-ordered airline shutdown, that brought the airlines to the brink of collapse.

Congress simply could not, and must not, let such a collapse occur. The fallout would be widespread, as we can see in troubles that range from Boeing's layoffs to the sudden agonies of tourism- dependent Hawaii, from hospitals that need just-in-time air shipment of supplies to computer makers that count on airliner shipment of parts from abroad.

But the emergency cash infusion is not enough. To their credit, members of Congress showed in their debate that they know this.

Airlines that apply for aid must undergo rigorous federal audits.

If layoffs accelerate in spite of the cash aid, those audits must redouble and continue, to make certain we don't get robbed.

The only way to get Americans in the air again, and thereby stop the industry's dive, is to implement convincing security enhancements, pronto.

Mid-sized cities like Spokane rightly demand that airline cost- cutters not kill service on which our people and businesses depend.

Airports, including ours, have even seen panicky Wall Street analysts raise questions about the reliability of airport bonds, due to a crisis that ought to be short-lived.

Courage. We need it. And, we need leaders who will keep hammering away with all of the tough questions, coming back with more reforms so our nation can rebuild from this month's attack.

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.