Did a GOP congressman hand over air traffic control to his lobbyist girlfriend?

A new air traffic control plan from the Trump administration has fishy ties to a major airline lobbying group.

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) proposed a plan to hand over partial control of air traffic to Airlines for America, an industry lobbying group that comprises United Airlines, Southwest, JetBlue, U.S. Airways, Federal Express Corporation, United Parcel Service Airlines and Alaska Airlines.

Under the proposed legislation, AFA would be the only trade group choosing board seats for the nonprofit entity controlling the U.S. air traffic system. The congressman has reportedly been dating AFA’s vice president of global affairs, Shelley Rubino, for more than two years; their relationship was exposed by a Politico report in April 2015. President Donald Trump’s plan to give air traffic control to a nonprofit has very similar language to Shuster’s proposed plan, the Daily Caller reported.

Andrew Follett of the Daily Caller joined “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson” Thursday to talk about the AFA story and Washington’s habit of crony capitalism.

Brad Staggs, standing in as host while Doc Thompson is away, sorted through the complex story with Follett for the audience. The airlines are receiving major control that is worth billions of dollars, Follett explained.

While the current air traffic control system isn’t perfect, “turning control to lobbyists isn’t necessarily the solution,” Follett said.

“We will end up paying more money because of what has happened here,” Brad said.

To see more from Doc, visit his channel on TheBlaze and listen live to “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson” weekdays 6–9 a.m. ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.