The Senate is poised to approve a bill as soon as today that would expand service at Dallas Love Field by adding Missouri to the list of states that can be served from the airport.
The provision to add Missouri to the eight states that are not limited by the Wright Amendment was included in a large spending bill by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., chairman of an appropriations subcommittee with spending authority over the Transportation Department and other agencies.
Congressional and aviation industry sources do not anticipate a separate vote on the provision or even that senators will debate it on the Senate floor. The change would still have to be approved by House members, who did not address the issue in the House-passed version of the bill.
But the expected alteration of the Wright Amendment by the Senate comes at a critical time for Fort Worth-based American Airlines as critics of the law in the Senate and House can point to the first forward motion toward repeal since Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which operates at Love Field, declared war on the restrictions a year ago.
"Twenty-five years ago the Wright Amendment was passed to prevent Southwest Airlines from offering nationwide service out of Dallas' Love Field," Bond said in a statement Wednesday. "I am pleased that I was able to exempt Missouri from this anti-competitive, anti-consumer policy."
Once the Senate passes the bill, differences will have to be worked out with the House-passed funding bill. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said through a spokesperson that she would fight to remove the provision, although she will not be on the conference committee that makes the decisions.
The vote on the Senate appropriations bill is part of an agreement between Bond and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
Hutchison argued in an appropriations subcommittee meeting in July that the 1979 law, designed to protect Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, needed to be debated in legislative hearings at the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
Bond had initially included language that would have essentially gutted the Wright Amendment by permitting Southwest Airlines to offer and market "through-ticketing" that the law now forbids. Southwest can now only offer point-to-point tickets from Love Field to cities within Texas, its four bordering states, and Mississippi, Kansas and Alabama.
Hutchison, who sits on both the appropriations committee and the Senate commerce panel, pledged to work for hearings after Bond said he would remove that language, which would have enabled Southwest to sell tickets from Love Field to any point in its system.
"She expressed her concerns to Senator Bond that this should not be taking place on an appropriations bill," said Chris Paulitz, Hutchison's spokesman.
Typically, the appropriations committee is responsible for funding federal agencies, and legislative committees examine and shape policy.
Hutchison has maintained that the economic effect of a repeal on North Texas needs to be examined beyond the benefit of lower fares to include the impact on D/FW and the region.
The Senate commerce committee, headed by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is preparing a day of hearings in early November, with Southwest founder Herb Kelleher and American Airlines President Ed Arpey expected to testify.
"Chairman Stevens has committed to holding hearings on this legislation in the commerce committee, which is good news," said Bond, who added: "I have put my colleagues on notice. If no action is taken, I will not hesitate to revisit this issue on a larger scale at my next opportunity."
A bill introduced by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., that exempts every state in the country from the Wright Amendment has seven co-sponsors, and a House bill introduced by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, to repeal the law has 40 co-sponsors.
American Airlines' spokesman Tim Wagner said the expected Senate action on Missouri would have no immediate effect.
"It's nothing imminent," Wagner said. "We have to keep doing what we've been doing. We have said all along that we don't think the Wright Amendment should be encroached upon in any way."
Southwest Airlines' spokesman Ed Stewart said that the expected approval was a "good first step, but our ultimate goal is repeal of the Wright Amendment."
Stewart suggested that Bond's desire to bring low-cost service to his home state would be rewarded.
"If the senator is successful in his efforts, the people of Kansas City and St. Louis will be well pleased by the results of the senator's action," Stewart said.
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