DOT Steps In Where Congress Wimps Out

The Department of Transportation has fined three airlines for their roles in the stranding of passengers overnight aboard a regional jet at the Rochester, Minn., airport, the Associated Press reports.

This signals the DOT’s willingness to use its existing regulations to address these outrageous cases of passengers being forced to sit aboard planes for hours in unacceptable conditions. Meanwhile, Congress dithers, unable to pass an air passenger bill of rights, apparently seeking some kind of unnecessary compromise between basic human decency and corporate intransigence.

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