Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, this week held hearings with the federal D-O-T, the Transportation Security Administration, and major airlines on why they lose 30-Million suitcases a year.

Iowa’s only Democrat Congressman, Boswell says they got promises the travel industry would take a look at staffing levels during the busy season, and would also review its measures to hold down theft of baggage. He says before long he’s tackling another project…letting private planes fly again to the nation’s capital.He says a closed hearing’s coming up on how to get general aviation back into the Washington National Airport, where those craft have been shut out since September 11, 2001.

“General aviation” means just about everything that’s not scheduled airline service — private planes of all kinds from a farmer’s single-engine Cub to business jets.
He says with today’s technology there’s no reason not to let them back in. A lot of business travelers have to fly to the capital and he says they ought to be able to use that airport.

Boswell’s a private pilot himself, and has said he sometimes flies his small plane when he’s back in Iowa. During his 20-year military career Boswell spent a couple years piloting a chopper in Vietnam.