U.S. Senators Sign Letter Defending BARR

A bipartisan group of 26 U.S. senators have sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood raising concerns that the government's plan to dismantle the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program represents "a troubling reversal of a decade-old policy put in place to uphold the privacy rights of thousands of Americans."

Organized by Sens. Pat Roberts (R - Kansas.) and Mark Begich (D-Arkansas.), and signed by 18 Republicans and eight Democrats, the June 29 letter noted that the BARR program - which allows owners of general aviation aircraft to prevent public dissemination of their aircraft movements, is essential for reasons of individual security, privacy and business competitiveness.

"The Department of Homeland Security and other law-enforcement agencies have always had the ability to monitor and track the location of users of the national airspace system," the senators' letter said, "and this won't change with the continuation of the BARR program. BARR simply prevents unauthorized, non-governmental actors from knowing the location of private citizens."