Bipartisan Effort Underway To Save BARR Program

Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Mark Begich (D-AK) led a group of their colleagues in sending a letter late last week to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood opposing a recent proposal by the FAA to eliminate current privacy protections for general aviation pilots, allowing the public to access their aircraft movements in real-time.

Senator Roberts

“I find it troubling that the Obama administration would associate removing the BARR program with the need for greater transparency,” said Roberts “Transparency has everything to do with citizens being able to see how the government carries out its business, not the other way around,” said Sen. Roberts. “I doubt any Kansan would associate allowing strangers to stalk the movements of private individuals as transparency. Maintaining the BARR program has everything to do with an individual’s Constitutional right to privacy, and I will continue to fight for all private citizens’ right to travel and conduct business without having to worry about who is spying on them.”
 
“In Alaska, aviation is essential to our way of life, but there’s no reason why a flight to visit a family member or an annual shopping trip needs to be tracked on the Internet in real-time,” said Begich. “The current program respects the safety concerns of government agencies while protecting the privacy of pilots, passengers and aircraft owners.”

Senator Begich

Roberts and Begich were joined by a bipartisan group of 26 senators who signed the letter asking DOT not to end the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program before Congress completes its work on the pending FAA Reauthorization bill, where the BARR program is currently being considered.
 
The BARR program allows citizens and companies to “opt out” of having their aircraft movements tracked by anyone, anywhere in the world, who has an Internet connection, other than the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies. BARR simply prevents unauthorized, non-governmental actors from knowing the location of private citizens.
 
However, the Senators say, if the proposed changes by the FAA are put in place, anyone with a computer and easily accessible tracking technology can stalk general aviation aircraft users. This reversal would dismantle a decade-old policy put in place to uphold the privacy rights of thousands of Americans.

FMI: www.faa.gov, http://roberts.senate.gov