{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://lobiondo.house.gov/press-release/over-100-members-congress-urge-president-elect-trump-protect-american-jobs-and", "Over 100 Members of Congress Urge President-Elect Trump to Protect American Jobs and Security, Reject NAI", "2016-12-20", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Frank LoBiondo", "L000554", "lobiondo.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Aviation Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Aviation Rick Larsen (D-WA), and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee member John Katko (R-NY) led over 100 Members of Congress on a bipartisan letter to President-elect Donald J. Trump, urging him to reverse a decision by the U.S. Department of Transportation to allow Norwegian Air International (NAI) to operate routes between the U.S. and Europe.\nNAI has established itself in Ireland, where labor laws permit the airline to hire its pilots and flight attendants on individual employment contracts under non-European law in order to cut costs. \u00a0NAI\u2019s overt practice of labor forum-shopping violates our Open Skies agreement with Norway and the European Union and gives it an unfair competitive advantage in the transatlantic market.\n\u201cOn December 2, 2016, the Department of Transportation (DOT) made a grievously wrong decision to grant Norwegian Air International a foreign air carrier permit for U.S.-Europe air services. Given your commitment to protecting American jobs and our national security, we strongly urge you, on Day One of your presidency, to revoke or suspend the permit until Norwegian changes its business model to a model that does not rely on a flag of convenience and threaten America\u2019s international aviation industry and our national security,\u201d the members wrote.\nA full copy of the letter can be found below.\nDecember 20, 2016\n\u00a0\nThe Honorable Donald J. Trump\nThe President-elect\n1717 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.\nWashington, D.C. 20006\n\u00a0\nDear Mr. President-elect:\n\u00a0\nOn December 2, 2016, the Department of Transportation (DOT) made a grievously wrong decision to grant Norwegian Air International a foreign air carrier permit for U.S.-Europe air services. Given your commitment to protecting American jobs and our national security, we strongly urge you, on Day One of your presidency, to revoke or suspend the permit until Norwegian changes its business model to a model that does not rely on a flag of convenience and threaten America\u2019s international aviation industry and our national security.\nNorwegian is \u201cNorwegian\u201d in name only: Its crews work under short-term contracts, many governed under Singapore law; some crewmembers are based in Bangkok; and the company is organized and regulated in Ireland. It is, for all intents and purposes, a virtual airline. Norwegian is the first airline in the transatlantic market to fly under a flag of convenience, but the Department\u2019s recent decision guarantees Norwegian will not be the last.\nIf the DOT\u2019s decision stands, other airlines are likely to follow suit and organize subsidiaries in foreign countries with lax labor laws, tax loopholes, or weak safety and security oversight. Global civil aviation will devolve into a system that relies on flags of convenience. This race to the bottom will threaten the viability of U.S. airlines and their fleets of widebody aircraft that comprise the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF). Under the CRAF program, airlines volunteer parts of their fleets for military use during national emergencies and in times of war. More than 130 widebody aircraft in the United States\u2019 three major long-haul carriers\u2019 fleets were available for mobilization by the Department of Defense under the CRAF program as of January 2016. However, if U.S. carriers find themselves unable to compete with other airlines that copy Norwegian\u2019s flag-of-convenience business model, U.S. airlines will downsize their widebody fleets, and our ability to move troops and materiel will suffer substantially. National security, as well as American jobs, is on the line.\nThe U.S.-E.U.-Iceland-Norway Open Skies agreement opened the transatlantic aviation market. Norwegian and every airline in the market benefit from the right under the agreement to fly from anywhere in the United States to anywhere in Europe. In creating this lucrative right, however, the agreement included protections to ensure fairness in the transatlantic aviation market.\nThe DOT ignored those protections, as well as well-established law prohibiting a decision inconsistent with those protections, in granting Norwegian\u2019s permit, and our country will pay a price for that failure of responsibility. We will pay that price as we watch a race to the bottom among airlines that are forced to compete with Norwegian. Moreover, while Norwegian chose the safe harbor of a country whose labor laws permit forum-shopping for the cheapest labor, the next airline to fly under a flag of convenience may choose the safe harbor of an opportunistic country with weak safety and security regulations, with serious consequences for safety and national security.\nWe strongly urge you to correct the Department\u2019s mistake. We urge you, on Day One of your presidency, to start the process necessary to revoke or suspend Norwegian\u2019s permit.\nThank you for your consideration of our views.\nSincerely,", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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": ["http://lobiondo.house.gov/press-release/over-100-members-congress-urge-president-elect-trump-protect-american-jobs-and"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.3574919905513525, "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"}