Venable partner Jim Burnley was quoted in a March 21, 2017, FCW article on proposed reforms to the country’s air traffic control system. Burnley and former North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, who co-chair the Eno Center for Transportation's NextGen working group, recently made the case for reform at an event hosted by the think tank.
Burnley said the program to modernize air traffic control, known as NextGen, "is one of the more important issues the country faces right now." He added, "We are running one of the most complicated, 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week businesses…under federal personnel procurement rules that are written primarily for agencies that put out regulations and pass out money." Burnley and Dorgan have proposed an independent nonprofit to handle operations with the FAA maintaining safety oversight.