Letter from Senator Richard Blumenthal, Senator Edward Markey, and Senator Elizabeth Warren to Jeffrey Zients, Director of the National Economic Council

Earlier this year, the President issued Executive Order (E.O.) 13725, directing executive depart ments and agencies to identify specific actions they can take to address undue burdens on competition and improve consumer access to information needed to make informed purchasing decisions, thereby supporting economic growth. We share the President’s goal of ensuring consumers and workers have the information they need to make informed choices. Accordingly, we write to raise our concerns about potentially anticompetitive and anti-consumer behavior among airlines that may be suppressing consumer ability to make informed flight decisions. Such actions would run directly counter to the President’s goal of promoting a competitive marketplace, and we urge you to recommend the Department of Transportation (DOT) to use its existing statutory authority to ensure that consumers have unfettered access to airlines’ flight schedule and pricing information.