U.S., Feb. 14 -- "The U.S. travel community strongly supports Chairman Thompson and Chairman DeFazio's measure to end the practice of using the '9/11' fee to pay for programs unrelated to air travel security," stated U.S. Travel Association Executive Vice President Jonathan Grella.

"Diverting part of the 9/11 security fee to general revenue was an unfortunate and misguided decision in multiple ways. The fee diversion plays budgetary games with one of the most critical and sensitive federal government functions: air transportation security. User fees fundamentally should be used to benefit the system from which they were collected-a bedrock principle embraced by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The missed opportunities to invest in u...