The Fight Over Love Field & The Wright Amendment

I don’t think I’ve ever actually blogged about the fight over the Wright Amendment. For one thing, most of my readers who don’t reside in the Dallas Metroplex could probably care less.

But, for those in households that can pick up Dallas TV stations, you cannot escape the battle over Love Field and the Wright Amendment. I think I first heard the term when I was about six years old while watching WFAA-TV’s newscast one night. It baffled me then and it baffles me now.

Well, it doesn’t really baffle me. I understand the thing now, but it still baffles me how much politicians use the Wright Amendment to get headlines.

If you’re saying, “Wright Amendment? What the hell are you talking about?” here’s a brief explaination:

Boiled down to brass tacks, the Wright Amendment was introduced by former Congressman (later House Speaker) Jim Wright (D-Fort Worth) in 1979. It limited traffic from Dallas’ Love Field Airport to points within Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico (the border states). Additional amending in 1997 allowed flights to Alabama, Kansas and Mississippi to originate from Love. Last year, Missouri was added to the list of states to which flights originating from Love Field may be destined to. Last month, a bill was introduced to exclude Nebraska from the federal restrictions. [Because you know everyone in Dallas loves to jettison up to Nebraska to see the World's Largest Ball of Stamps on the weekends]. There is more history on the Wright Amendment here.
Anyway, a month-long moratorum on efforts to lobby federal lawmakers concerning the Wright Amendment while local officials and airlines (mainly American and Southwest) tried to work out a compromise is evidently at an end, as Congressmen Jeb Hensarling (R-Dallas) and Sam Johnson (R-Dallas) are resuming their efforts to have the Wright Amendment repealed when Congress reconvenes following the Memorial Day recess next week.

Hensarling has used the Wright Amendment, which so offends his “free market” sensabilities, as a bully pulpit for a couple of years now. His most recent incident was this guest column in the DMN.
I really don’t have much to say on the Wright Amendment, except that I love to note how many different pies Hensarling has his fingers stuck into, as opposed to doing some actual work on behalf of his constituants.

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