In November Pennsylvania Rep. Bill Shuster, head of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told the Associated Press that he had met with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss the possibility of privatizing air traffic control,

“I have spoken to him on a number of occasions and he generally likes the idea,” Shuster told the AP. “We do need to sit down and put meat on the bones … I think in general he sees it as something that’s positive and we need to work on it.”

Now a report from Reuters indicates Shuster has also met with incoming transportation secretary Elaine Chao and that privatization advocates are getting "supportive feedback" from Trump.

In February of this year, Shuster, along with New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo, proposed a bill that would cleave air traffic control away from the government and hand it over to a private, non-profit company. The proposal was voted out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee along partisan lines.

The controllers' union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, supported the legislation, but critics say the move is a massive example of corporate welfare that will do little to improve safety or cut customer costs (the company that took control wouldn't have to pay for a system that has cost the government over $50 billion).

Shuster, who also supports the privatization of airport security, maintains a close relationship with the airline industry, specifically the United States' top airline trade group, Airlines for America. Shuster has admitted he's in a romantic relationship with Shelley Rubino, a vice president at Airlines for America. Shuster has drafted a document stating that Rubino can't lobby him or his staff, but Politico pointed out that, “This does not prevent Rubino from lobbying the other 50 members of the committee, and their aides.”

Bloomberg quotes Seth Kaplan, a managing partner at industry journal Airline Weekly, who points out that Trump's opinions on the issue are hard to gauge. “This is probably not the kind of pro-business Republican administration you might expect,” said Kaplan. "[He] doesn’t really have any core beliefs. He’s said certain things in the campaign that he had to, to bring himself in line with the Republican Party a little bit, but it’s not like there’s a history with anything.”

Regardless of Trump's thoughts, it seems clear that proponents of privatization will make a strong push once he becomes president.