United Airlines chief Scott Kirby on Sunday said he’s solidly behind the Senate-passed $1 trillion infrastructure bill — and of climate change elements in the larger $3.5 trillion spending plan.
In an interview on CBS News’ "Face the Nation,” the chief executive officer of the airlines company said his support is not that of an outsider within the business community
“I am very supportive of the entire infrastructure package, as is most of the business community,” Kirby said.
“It's a great opportunity to invest in America coming out of- out of this [COVID-19] crisis.”
According to Kirby, the airline’s air traffic control system “still flies in a lot of ways the same way we flew 50, 60 years ago.”
“And there's real opportunities to make it more efficient and it'd be good for the economy, good for customers, really kind of good for society as a whole,” he said of the $1 trillion spending plan.
But he noted “the climate change elements are a part of the $3.5 trillion so the climate change elements in particular —and I don't know 100% of what they are — but the ones I do know about, I'm very supportive of .”
Kirby said he hoped those elements “pass either in this bill or somewhere else.”
The executive also praised President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees.
“I think the administration's perspective has been that getting people vaccinated at work, it's a one shot and you can really get a whole bunch of the country,” he said.
“You can get a high percentage of the country as opposed to making it a burden on people that are vaccinated every time you get a plane, a train, any kind of public transportation to prove that you're vaccinated. So, for now, I think their approach of focusing on the employment and focusing on work is probably the right way to go.”
“They've got great data and science, and if they tell us that they want us to check everyone, we're prepared to do that as well,” he added.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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