GOP Blasted for ‘Handout to the Superwealthy’ Private Jet Owners Slipped Into Air Safety Bill

“Oh look—Republicans helping private-jet billionaires avoid paying taxes,” said one Senate Democrat. “If only they worked that hard for consumers.”


Private jets park at the Friedman Memorial Airport during the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 10, 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Jun 08, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Nearly a year after congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump made private jets tax-deductible in last summer’s budget package, they’re again trying to push through legislation that would benefit people rich enough to own personal planes.

Members of Congress have been working on an air safety bill since a military helicopter collided with a passenger plane over the Potomac River last year, killing dozens of people. Early Monday, Politico reported on “a little-noticed” provision on private jets that was slipped into legislation passed by the House of Representatives in April, but not included in the Senate version.

The debated provision stems from the Federal Aviation Administration’s 2020 requirement that aircraft adopt a satellite-based tracking technology called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out.

“Private aircraft owners go to great lengths to hide their aircraft from us,” Jeff Prang, the assessor for California’s Los Angeles County, told Politico. “This data helps us to identify where those aircraft are located.”

Prang said that since the beginning of the year, the data has helped his office find an additional 1,000 aircraft in the county, with a total assessed value of $3.5 billion. Private jets in California are subject to sales tax and a 1% annual property tax, so “that’s $35 million in local property taxes that aircraft owners had been avoiding,” he explained.

The House provision states that the data “may not be used by any person, government agency, or other entity to identify aircraft for the purpose of obtaining revenue from the owner or operator of such aircraft” without permission.

If passed, billionaires will “get to fly private and pay NO taxes,” Americans for Tax Fairness Americans warned on social media Monday. “This is a handout to the superwealthy—and we’re going to pay for it.”

Also responding to reporting, John Loftus, editor at large of the right-wing Daily Caller, suggested the policy could harm Republicans who are at risk of losing control of one or both chambers of Congress in the November midterm elections.

“It’s annoying and wrong that private jet owners dodge taxes. This is a great political issue for Democrats because they like to portray those with money as responsible for all ills in American society—$35 million in tax revenue for California is a drop in the ocean (and would likely get wasted anyway),” Loftus wrote. “Republican lawmakers trying to carve out this loophole in a midterm election makes them look sneaky and unconcerned with the issue on 99% of the population’s mind: inflation.”

Although Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is not up for reelection this cycle, he, too, noted the reporting: “Oh look—Republicans helping private-jet billionaires avoid paying taxes. If only they worked that hard for consumers.”