Senator Chuck Schumer is taking aim at the airline industry ahead of the holiday travel season.
He sent a letter to the transportation secretary calling for a new federal rule to keep families seated together on flights.
Legislation stalled in Congress has a provision requiring that children ages 13 or under be seated with their family.
Schumer says some families are still being forced to pay extra fees to sit together, and in some cases children as young as one-year-old have been split up anyway.