Critics cite FAA 'revolving door'

BUFFALO, N.Y., Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Former high-level Federal Aviation Administration officials are going through a revolving door into U.S. airline industry posts, records indicate.

One of them is Megan Rae Rosia, the former FAA assistant administrator for government and industry affairs, who is now lobbying Congress on behalf of Pinnacle Airlines, its first-ever lobbyist hire, The Buffalo News reported Sunday.

Pinnacle is the parent company of Continental Connection, whose Flight 3407 crashed in a suburb of Buffalo in February, killing 50 people. The newspaper said its review of airline lobbying records unearthed several other examples of the revolving door, including the FAA's chief operating officer, who is a former United Airlines vice president.

An online database compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington watchdog group reportedly listed 38 such government-industry moves.

"It is a very troubling phenomenon, and it appears to be particularly pernicious in regard to the FAA," Craig Holman of Public Citizen told the News. "At the FAA, we just ran into story after story of the revolving door going in both directions."

Pinnacle spokesman Joe Williams told the News: "(Rosia) is really not doing any active lobbying."