On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 11:32:51 -0700, David H
wrote in Message-Id: :

I have yet to hear a single credible benefit that ATC privatization would
provide.

Former FAA Assassinator, Jane Garvey, found these reasons:

http://www.senate.gov/~commerce/hearings/0430gar.pdf
STATEMENT OF JANE F. GARVEY, ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL AVIATION
ADMINISTRATION, BEFORE THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION, ON THE
REAUTHORIZATION OF FAA PROGRAMS AND ON RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE
NATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION REVIEW COMMISSION, APRIL 30, 1998.

First, FAA’s budget treatment must change. In order to ensure that
FAA expenditures match aviation demand for services, with this
legislation, the FAA’s funding and financing system will receive a
Federal budget treatment for air traffic services (ATS) that
ensures that fees from aviation users and spending on aviation
services are directly linked. We accomplish this by exempting the
user fee financed portion of air traffic services from
discretionary budget caps and by creating a third budget category
that links user fees and spending for ATS. The Commission
recognized that a change in FAA’s budget treatment is the
foundation for all its remaining recommendations. Along with
management reforms, this new approach will prompt new efficiencies
in ATS service and provide the foundation for needed growth in
capital First, FAA’s budget treatment must change. In order to
ensure that FAA expenditures match aviation demand for services,
with this legislation, the FAA’s funding and financing system will
receive a Federal budget treatment for air traffic services (ATS)
that ensures that fees from aviation users and spending on
aviation services are directly linked. We accomplish this by
exempting the user fee financed portion of air traffic services
from discretionary budget caps and by creating a third budget
category that links user fees and spending for ATS. The
Commission recognized that a change in FAA’s budget treatment is
the foundation for all its remaining recommendations. Along with
management reforms, this new approach will prompt new efficiencies
in ATS service and provide the foundation for needed growth in
capital



Katy Saldarini, , offers these reasons:

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1200/120800k1.htm
In a performance-based organization (PBO), government executives
are given broad exemptions from federal procurement and personnel
rules in exchange for tough performance standards. The idea is that
some federal programs can perform better if they are run more like
private companies. Vice President Al Gore's National Partnership for
Reinventing Government spearheaded the performance-based organization
management concept in 1996.


Robert Poole, Director of Transportation Studies at the Reason
Foundation in Los Angeles, served on the Bush team's transportation
policy task force during the 2000 presidential campaign. He seems to
be firmly behind privatized ATC:

http://www.rppi.org/atc14.html
America's air traffic control system is broken, leading to flight
delays, passenger dissatisfaction, and lost economic productivity.
Unfortunately, attempts to fix the system have not addressed the
root problem, an inflexible organization resistant to change and
weighed down by political micromanagement. In a new report, Reason
Public Policy Institute calls for the shifting of ATC out of the
FAA and into a new, nonprofit corporation that would operate the
system like a business. This shift to an independent entity is
essential to upgrade the nation's air transportation
infrastructure and integrate new technology.


http://www.ndol.org/blueprint/2001_s...c_control.html
Instead of exempting private plane owners (general aviation) from
user fees in hopes of gaining their political support, it would
require piston and turboprop users to pay an annual membership
fee, replacing the current fuel taxes, with business jets paying
fees on the same basis as other jets. The rationale is that all
key user groups should be represented on the nonprofit
corporation's board as stakeholders - but that they should do so
as paying customers


The American Association of Airport Executives seems to like the idea
of privatizing ATC:
http://www.swaaae.org/commissionreport7.html


Brilliant Bill ordered ATC to become a PBO:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-...11de00-135.pdf
President Bill Clinton:
Executive Order 13180 of December 7, 2000
Air Traffic Performance-Based Organization
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and
the laws of the United States of America, and in order to further
improve the provision of air traffic services, an inherently
governmental function, in ways that increase efficiency, take
better advantage of new technologies, accelerate modernization
efforts, and respond more effectively to the needs of the
traveling public, while enhancing the safety, security, and
efficiency of the Nation’s air transportation system, it is hereby
ordered as follows: ...


But, it Al Gore who instigated the idea:
http://www.airportnet.org/depts/regulatory/gorecom.htm
--

Irrational beliefs ultimately lead to irrational acts.
-- Larry Dighera,