Ted Cruz Wants to Make Sure Airlines Don’t Have to Refund Your Money

Ted Cruz and four of his fellow members of Congress want you to fly through hoops to get a refund from an airline.

Last week, the Biden administration issued a new rule requiring automatic refunds from airlines if a flight is delayed or canceled. But then, Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, as well as Representatives Sam Graves and Rick Larsen, proposed legislation that would undermine the rule by requiring passengers to submit a “written or electronic request” to get a full refund if their flight is canceled or heavily delayed.

The bill would essentially make refunds only available to people who have the time and resources to navigate whatever processes an airline sets up. Plus, contacting an airline has never been easy to do. This would also seem to defeat the purpose of Biden’s new rule: hassle-free payback to inconvenienced travelers.

“Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them—without headaches or haggling,” Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said in a statement last week. “Our new rule sets a new standard to require airlines to promptly provide cash refunds to their passengers.” 

It’s not just Republicans attempting to ground Biden’s new rule: Cantwell and Larsen are both Democrats from Washington state, where airplane manufacturer Boeing has several facilities. But why is Cruz weighing in? It might be because he has been obsessing over air travel in recent months, even proposing a bill to give politicians extra security in airports so they don’t have to spend so much time in line.

That bill would also reduce the likelihood of the public seeing or interacting with politicians when they fly—something Cruz wants to avoid, lest he be seen flying to Cancun again while his constituents in Texas get hit with severe weather.