Air Carrier Access Act

About the Presenters

[Blane Workie]
[Mike Spollen]

Blane Workie is the Chief of the Aviation Civil Rights Compliance Branch in the General Counsel’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings at the Department of Transportation. She directs investigations and enforces the Department’s aviation civil rights requirements primarily through negotiation, preparing cease and desist orders, and drafting orders assessing civil penalties. She also provides agency personnel with sound legal and policy advice concerning the Department's aviation enforcement duties, particularly with respect to the civil rights of air travelers. In addition, Ms. Workie has spearheaded the Department’s outreach efforts to air travelers with disabilities by arranging for forums attended by representatives of the disability community and large and small airlines to explore ways of improving the air travel environment.

Prior to her work with the Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, Blane Workie was a regulatory attorney in the Department’s Office of Regulation and Enforcement within the Office of the General Counsel. She served as legal advisor to the Secretary of Transportation on many administrative law requirements affecting the regulatory process, including statutes, Executive Orders, and rules. From September 1999 to September 2000, Ms. Workie served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

Mike Spollen is a native of the Washington, D.C. area. After attending Virginia Tech and graduating from George Mason University, Mike began his federal career as in investigator in 1979 with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). At the CAB, he investigated potential violations by airlines of various consumer protection regulations, and was involved closely in the development and implementation of the first federal regulation protecting the rights of airline passengers with disabilities. Mike says that he has finally gotten over the fact that, after Congress realized that the CAB had hired him, it quickly passed sunset legislation closing that agency at the end of 1984.

Not to be deterred, Mike transferred from the CAB to the Department of Transportation, where he currently works in the General Counsel’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division. Since passage of the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) in 1986, Mike has been actively involved in DOT’s efforts to protect the civil rights of airline passengers with disabilities and ensure airlines’ compliance with DOT’s ACAA regulations. Mike currently serves as DOT’s aviation disability team leader, where he helps coordinate the Department’s rulemaking, investigation and enforcement activities.