ALPA ADVANCING AVIATION SAFETY AND SECURITY SINCE 1931

Release #: Vol. 85, No. 2
March 01, 2016

FAA Reauthorization Bill: Unsafe & Unfair

The U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has completed its markup of the Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization Act of 2016—the draft bill to reauthorize the FAA. ALPA analyzed the bill and found that provisions in it don’t adequately ensure safety in the air transport industry. ALPA is pushing now, while the House considers a path forward, to address the concerns posed by the bill and improve it for ALPA pilots and the safety of U.S. airspace. The bill also creates an unfair funding system for the new air traffic organization.

Although the draft does contain some ALPA priorities (it maintains minimum first officer qualification rules and other vital, established safety regulations), the good doesn’t outweigh the bad. The bill fails to address the air transport of lithium batteries in any meaningful way. Furthermore, general aviation is exempted from ever paying fees toward a new air traffic organization, leaving the airline industry to shoulder the vast majority of the costs.

The effectiveness that ALPA can have on this process was demonstrated when the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee amended the bill to include mandatory secondary cockpit barriers for all new airliners. This victory is the result of the countless hours ALPA staff and volunteers have put into educating Members of Congress on this issue. The Association’s strategy is working—the more ALPA members who join the cause, the more progress ALPA will make.

While ALPA will continue its work to ensure that more pilot priorities are included in the final reauthorization, the Association is asking all members to advance the union’s goals by participating in the following efforts to bolster ALPA’s safety message:

  1. Participate in ALPA’s Call to Action regarding lithium batteries. The current effort doesn’t address the serious risks presented by the unregulated carriage of lithium batteries. Go to www.alpa.org/advocacy to participate.
  2. Participate in the Association’s Call to Action regarding the need for secondary cockpit barriers. ALPA must protect the gains it’s made to date in the House, and the Senate still needs to act on the issue. Make your voice heard by going to www.alpa.org/advocacy.
  3. Social media: Tweet a message to your elected representative regarding these issues. #SafetyFirst #AIRRAct
  4. Support ALPA-PAC today and help the Association fund its education efforts by visiting www.alpapac.org.

Please help ALPA raise the safety bar and advance a pilot-partisan FAA reauthorization bill today.

ALPA Meets with News Media to Discuss FAA Reauthorization

Just days before the introduction of the FAA reauthorization, Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA’s president, met with Washington, D.C.-based journalists who cover aviation for major international and national news outlets to highlight ALPA’s priorities for the final FAA reauthorization bill. Reporters representing Flightglobal, Air Transport World, USA Today, the Associated Press, CQ Roll Call, Bloomberg, The Hill, ABC News, and CBS News learned ALPA pilots’ perspective on the key legislation.

 
This article is from the March 2016 issue of Air Line Pilot magazine, the Official Journal of the Air Line Pilots Association, International—a monthly publication for all ALPA members.

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