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“ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S1932 on March 29, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS
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REMEMBERING DR. ALFRED KAHN
Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, as chairman of the Senate's Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, I pay tribute to a giant of antitrust law and economics, the economist and legal scholar Alfred E. Kahn, who passed away on December 27, 2010, at the age of 93.
A scholar at the forefront of public utility deregulation, Dr. Kahn was perhaps best known as the ``father of airline deregulation.'' His work in the Carter administration in the 1970s to deregulate the airline industry led the way for dramatic reductions in airline fares, saving consumers billions, when he spearheaded passage of the U.S. Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 as chair of the now-defunct Civil Aeronautics Board. While a highlight of his career, this was just one of many of Dr. Kahn's achievements--throughout his life he was an outstanding advocate for consumers, against monopoly and unnecessary government interference in the private market, and for the creative and vigorous enforcement of antitrust law.
Born on October 17, 1917, in Paterson, NJ, the son of Russian immigrants, Alfred Edward Kahn graduated from New York University, first in his class, at the age of 18 and received a Ph.D. from Yale University. In the early 1940s, Dr. Kahn worked at the Brookings Institution, in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and for the War Production Board as an economist.
During World War II, Dr. Kahn served as an Army economist for the Commission on Palestine Surveys. Soon after the war, he spent 2 years as a professor at Ripon College in Wisconsin, before beginning his esteemed career at Cornell University, which, other than the time he spent in public service, would last until his death.
Before stepping onto the national political scene, Dr. Kahn served as head of the New York State Public Service Commission, the State's regulator for electricity, gas, water, and telephones. From there, seeking to use deregulation as a means to stimulate economic growth, President Carter tapped Dr. Kahn to serve as chairman of the now-
defunct Civil Aeronautics Board in 1977. The CAB was entrusted with economic regulation of the airlines--including the routes carriers could fly and the fares they could charge.
At the time of his appointment, Dr. Kahn professed to know little about the airline business, referring to airplanes as ``marginal costs with wings.'' However, he was a quick study, and the industry was ripe for change. Substantial investments had recently been made in wide-body aircraft, and industry players wanted access to new routes and new passengers. Though slight in physical stature and viewed purely as an academic and not someone who could wield much influence, Dr. Kahn was able to take on the industry and persuade the establishment that excessive government regulation had long-harbored inefficiency and was facilitating artificially inflated fares.
Through various avenues, including the press, CAB proceedings, and testimony in Congress, Dr. Kahn was the intellectual leader and primary advocate of deregulating the airline industry, highlighting that many planes were flying half full at fares many could not afford. Less than 2 years after assuming his post at the CAB, Congress passed and President Carter signed into law the Airline Deregulation Act. This landmark legislation was the first complete dismantling of a Federal regulatory scheme since the 1930s. In all, Dr. Kahn testified before U.S. House and Senate committees more than 70 times in his career. He testified before our Antitrust Subcommittee several times, always eloquently and honestly, with impressive candor and penetrating insight.
In later years, Dr. Kahn steadfastly defended his work on airline deregulation by pointing out that more Americans were flying with greater choice at lower rates than ever before. In a 1998 essay in the New York Times, Dr. Kahn admitted that even though the ``resulting competitive regime has been far from perfect, it has saved travelers more than $10 billion a year.'' For Dr. Kahn, the deregulation of the airline industry had one powerful effect: empowering the consumer through competition. This was perhaps the signal achievement of his outstanding career. Throughout his life, he stood for consumers against entrenched monopolies, for innovation against the established economic order, and for unleashing the dynamism and creativity of an unfettered free market and excessive and heavyhanded regulation.
Not only a brilliant economist and legal scholar, Dr. Kahn will be remembered for his sharp wit and humor. Dr. Kahn famously created a buzz with his initiative to eliminate government ``bureaucratese'' when the Washington Post published a copy of his memo calling for his staff to use ``plain English'' and ``quasi-conversational, humane prose'' in their writing. Following his time in Washington, Dr. Kahn returned to chair the economics department at Cornell, where he would author more than 130 academic papers and 8 books.
Upon his passing, I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Alfred Kahn for his contributions to the antitrust and regulatory economics fields and for his service to the American people and offer my deepest condolences to his wife and family.
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