{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/icymi-hawley-accuses-airline-execs-of-using-predatory-fees-harassing-passengers-to-increase-profits/", "ICYMI: Hawley Accuses Airline Execs of Using Predatory Fees, Harassing Passengers to Increase Profits", "2025-10-01", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) confronted airline executives for implementing predatory fees to increase profit margins by extracting every last penny from travelers.\n\nSenator Hawley accused Frontier Airlines CEO, Barry Biffle, of paying his employees to harass customers over the carry-on bag policy saying, \u201cAbout nine months ago, your chief commercial officer testified to me that Frontier pays its gate agents bounties to stop paying customers from carrying bags onto the plane. Is this still happening?\u201d\n\nMr. Biffle replied, \u201cNot at the rate it was . . . We do offer incentives and commissions, to stop people who didn\u2019t pay.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley responded, \u201cYou\u2019re still paying them money to harass customers from bringing bags onto the airline by saying it was too big or doesn\u2019t fit in a little box, or whatever the case may be, you\u2019re still doing it . . . This has gotta be the only business in the world I have heard of that pays your people to harass your own customers.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley turned to Allegiant Airlines CEO, Greg Anderson, to ask if his company charges families with children under the age of 13 fees to sit together saying, \u201cYour airline apparently, is charging additional fees. I just want to know, are you still doing that?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re not wrong,\u201d Mr. Anderson replied. \u201cThere are some technology issues that we\u2019re working through. We transformed our system, but we will look into this.\u201d\n\nSenator Hawley continued to question the airline executives about how they are implementing AI to increase profit margins and the unfair practice of dynamic seat pricing.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/icymi-hawley-accuses-airline-execs-of-using-predatory-fees-harassing-passengers-to-increase-profits/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3092169538140297, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}