The Trump administration's infrastructure plan released Monday proposes that the federal government consider selling off Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport.
The administration wants to allow federal agencies to divest assets if they "can demonstrate an increase in value from the sale would optimize the taxpayer value for federal assets," according to Trump's blueprint for an infrastructure package.
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It also includes the George Washington and Baltimore Washington parkways, the Washington Aqueduct and the transmission assets of the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bonneville Power Administration on the list for "potential divestiture."
State and local agencies or the private sector may be better at managing assets currently owned by the federal government, the administration argues, and federal agencies should be able to "identify appropriate conditions under which sales would be made." They should also "delineate how proceeds would be spent."
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Under the administration's proposal, federal agencies would have to complete an analysis demonstrating an "increase in value from divestiture."
Though technically owned by the federal government, both airports are operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority under a long-term lease agreement.
The statute that originally executed the lease in 1986 also created the capacity constraints that Washington National operates under — and which lawmakers from Southern and Western states routinely attempt to relax.
