Congress will have plenty to deal with when members return to Washington from their August recess, notably the explosive issue of health care and a wide range of lingering problems related to the nation's economy.

But for anyone who has to travel by air in this country, there may be no more urgent legislation than the air passenger bill of rights. Co-sponsored by Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the bill of rights is included in routine Federal Aviation Administration legislation that has received committee approval but still needs to be passed by the full Senate.

If senators don't think the air-travel bill is as important as health care and some other issues, maybe they should hold a town hall meeting with the 47 passengers who were forced to sit on a grounded airplane for six hours last weekend in Rochester, Minn.

It's become a familiar story: passengers stranded on a tarmac in a cramped, hot plane without food, refreshment, proper sanitation or air that's fit breathe. This time, the perpetrator of the outrage was Continental Airlines, whose Continental Express Flight 2816 from Houston to Minneapolis was diverted to Rochester because of bad weather and then left sitting on the tarmac from midnight Friday until 6 a.m. Saturday. The Continental flight was operated by a regional carrier, ExpressJet Airlines, according to the Associated Press report of the incident.

The AP quoted one of the passengers: "It was almost a surreal quality that kind of developed during the night. If felt like you were trapped in a cave underground."

The report also quoted Elizabeth Merida, a spokeswoman for an organization that has lobbied against passengers' rights bills on behalf of airlines. Merida said her group, the Air Transport Association, believes a passenger bill of rights "will ultimately end up inconveniencing passengers rather than helping them."

Sure it will. Because we all know how convenient it is for a group of weary, angry travelers to be confined on an airplane like so many animals in a cage -- as opposed to, say, being allowed to get off the plane and relax inside the terminal while waiting out a lengthy flight delay.

The idea of a passenger bill of rights has been kicked around in Congress for years, but the airline lobby has always managed to shout it down. The current proposal would prevent airlines from keeping passengers on a grounded plane for more than three hours.

Anyone who has sat on a grounded airplane for three hours knows that even three hours is too long. We believe passengers should be given the option of deplaning after one hour, and every hour thereafter, but a three-hour limit would certainly be better than no limit at all.

Snowe said in a statement released by her office that the incident in Minnesota "makes clear once again the airline industry's inability to protect passenger rights."

That is clear and so is this: Air travelers have waited long enough -- on tarmacs and for Congress, to take action.