UPS, FedEx reap the benefits of airports' pet projects - USA Today
FedEx and competitor United Parcel Service (UPS) have benefited on numerous occasions from "earmarks," which are specific projects that lawmakers add to spending bills, a USA TODAY review shows of the annual transportation spending bills for the past nine years.
Since 2001, $100 million in earmarked money has gone to 11 small airports where one of the two major cargo carriers has a large operation with daily flights. The funds have paid to expand or upgrade runways and taxiways to handle the large jets flown by FedEx and UPS.
Critics of earmarks, such as Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, call the spending "corporate welfare" because the money for airport projects mostly comes from the millions of people a year who buy airline tickets with federal taxes and mostly helps large companies.
FedEx and competitor United Parcel Service (UPS) have benefited on numerous occasions from "earmarks," which are specific projects that lawmakers add to spending bills, a USA TODAY review shows of the annual transportation spending bills for the past nine years.
Since 2001, $100 million in earmarked money has gone to 11 small airports where one of the two major cargo carriers has a large operation with daily flights. The funds have paid to expand or upgrade runways and taxiways to handle the large jets flown by FedEx and UPS.
Critics of earmarks, such as Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, call the spending "corporate welfare" because the money for airport projects mostly comes from the millions of people a year who buy airline tickets with federal taxes and mostly helps large companies.
