Zeldin Demands End To Excess Baggage Fees for Deploying Troops

PATCHOGUE, NY (08/13/2008)(readMedia)-- As the United States Congress continues it's five-week summer vacation, the Republican and Conservative Party candidate for New York's First Congressional District today demanded that airlines halt measures that charge military personnel for excess luggage when travelling on government orders to forward-deployed locations.

Throughout his campaign, Army veteran Lee Zeldin, the GOP and Conservative Party candidate for the Eastern Long Island district, has established himself as the candidate of the troops, looking to inject a vet's point of view in a Congress which boasts a declining number of former military personnel.

"When our nation calls upon these men and women to leave their families and head into harm's way, the last thing we need to do is saddle them with an additional burden," said Zeldin. "Fortunately, this injustice carries a simple solution. First, we need the Department of Defense to renegotiate our agreement with the airlines, agree to a reduced fee for traveling military personnel and then approve funding. Second, airlines must integrate excess luggage charges at a reduced rate into government tickets, so they do not show up as last-minute surprises at the ticket counter."

Despite the obvious solution, Zeldin expressed concern that Congressional inaction-compliments of his opponent's deciding vote to take the five-week recess-and support from big business would bog down progress on this important measure.

"My opponent is on the Transportation Committee, which unfortunately means that he's a good friend of the airlines, thanks to tens of thousands of dollars donated to him by the industry," said Zeldin. "It's a shame that our troops don't have a political action committee that can donate this money to curry political favor. This is wrong, and now's the time to stand up to this injustice."

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Zeldin served as an aide to State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle. The Shirley resident studied at the University at Albany, graduated from Albany Law School, and earned his commission through Army ROTC. He was a paratrooper, prosecutor and magistrate with the 82nd Airborne Division and XVIII Airborne Corps. In the summer of 2006, he was a JAG attorney deployed to Iraq. He is currently an attorney at Raiser & Kenniff on Long Island.

Paid for by Lee Zeldin for Congress