Transcription
Secretary of Transportation announced that the Department of Transportation is going to abandon that proposed P plan. Pete Buddhajudge was of course Biden's Secretary of Transportation and he joins us now.
Uh Secretary Buddhaj Judge, I see you there at the gate at an airport. Uh tell us about uh these proposed rules uh and what consumers can expect now that the Trump administration is abandoning them.
So the idea of this proposed rule was to make sure that you could get compensation for your time uh if you are in one of these extreme delay situations or if your flight gets cancelled. Uh this is the norm in a lot of countries uh Europe, UK, Canada. Passengers uh have enjoyed these rights for years, not so much in the United States. And so uh during uh the time that I was secretary, we launched a process uh to get these rules uh developed. Uh it looks like under uh President Trump and Secretary G Duffy, they are cancelling that process. So passengers will not have that protection. And they're also indicating that they might be rolling back other uh protections, other rules that we had finalized, uh rights that you and I have right now as a passenger that uh may be at risk, may be rolled back based on some of the preliminary filings we've seen from this administration.
>> Uh transportation department statement to CNN says that the department will quote implement all aviation consumer protection requirements mandated by Congress unquote. Um is that enough?
Yeah, let me translate that in plain English. What that means is they will not do anything to protect passengers unless Congress makes them. We did everything we could within the authorities that Congress provided. And that meant going above and beyond the minimum uh using the the legal authority the department had to do things like make sure that uh you did get your money back automatically to set strict rules on how that would work to hold airlines accountable on things like uh uh their promises around uh seating you with your family transparency around fees so many other things that I think are really important. Look, the reason we did this was because so many passengers were having such a frustrating experience with the way they were being treated by airlines. And I think that it's very important for a department to stand up for passengers. But I got to tell you, in the Trump administration, we're seeing decision after decision that uh tilts in favor of corporations and against consumers. With credit cards, uh they've allowed banks to increase junk fees and late fees. uh with the FTC. You've seen this conservative push that means that now it's easier for companies to trap you in a subscription that you do don't want. And uh you know, I always wondered if that was going to or when that was going to happen on the airline side. Now it looks like it's underway with this news and again some signals from the Trump administration that they might be clawing back more passenger protections that as of today we already enjoy.
>> Uh I know you're at a real airport because I hear a crying baby uh behind you. That's how I know it's legitimate. Uh you're at the Minneapolis St. Paul airport right now. We've seen a lot of travel disruption this year because of outmoded equipment and air traffic control towers. Uh the Trump administration routinely blames the Biden administration and you uh for not doing anything. Um were you aware of for example the air traffic control problems at Newark airport?
>> Yeah, of course. That's why we did things like launching the contract to modernize the technology. Now, when the Trump administration came in, uh they stopped it or paused it to see if they could give it to Elon Musk. As I understand, that contract is now back up and running. But look, this is one area where I support uh the things that the secretary says he wants to do. Uh there definitely things that we saw needed to be done when we inherited the air traffic control system that we inherited from the first Trump administration. Uh we moved the ball as far as we could. I'd like to think this is a bipartisan cause where so many of us, including obviously me at the moment, changing planes uh are members of the traveling public who depend on a safe, strong air traffic control system. This shouldn't be a partisan football. This is something the whole country should want to get done.
>> I know you got a your flights about the board. Um so before I let you go though, I have to ask you or should we expect to see you campaigning for Democrats during next year's midterm elections? and have you made a decision about running for office, including president, in 2028?
>> Uh, so yes and no in that order. Uh, definitely uh too soon for me to make any big uh career decisions, but uh definitely not too soon to be do doing everything that I can to uh encourage and promote and support candidates that I believe in, causes that I believe in. This is such an important moment for our country. And I I know there's a temptation among a lot of people, I think especially in my party, to to kind of tune out because there's so much bad news about freedoms being taken away, harm being done in our country. Uh but I think that means we need to redouble our efforts to put forward better leadership. Look, we know that the American people uh don't like what they're seeing under the Trump administration. Uh the Republican agenda is clearly so unpopular that uh one of their biggest efforts right now is to change the way the districts are being drawn in the middle of the decade because they know even on today's maps if they just ran on their ideas, they would lose. Uh that's something that should signal to us that we got to go into these fights with everything that we've got. And as a private citizen, I'm I'm going to do everything in my power to help.
>> Pete Buddha Judge, thanks so much. Appreciate your time. And uh you better go catch your flight.
>> We'll do. My pleasure. Thanks for having me on.