Following through on last week's pledges of limited support (see WIT for March 26, 2003), the US Senate and House of Representatives appropriations committees yesterday approved airline industry aid measures attached to the two houses' $75 billion-plus war cost bills and worth $3.5 and $3.2 billion, respectively. Lawmakers in both houses of Congress held firm in their opposition to bailouts for the troubled industry, and a strong bipartisan message that the airlines had only themselves to blame for many of their problems accompanied the aid proposals now headed for resolution in conference committee. While the House and Senate measures both focus on subsidizing airlines' war risk insurance and reimbursing them for required security changes, the Senate version includes funding for additional security reimbursements and unemployment benefits for laid-off workers.
See "House and Senate Panels Back3 Billion in Aid to Airlines", EDMUND L. ANDREWS, The New York Times, April 1, 2003