ALPA Protects Aviation Safety and Pilot Rights in FAA Reauthorization Legislation
By ALPA Government Affairs Department Staff
The FAA reauthorization bill is the primary legislation in the U.S. Congress that affects pilots. Every four to five years, the FAA bill, or reauthorization as it’s commonly known, is considered by Congress to not only continue the FAA’s ability to operate and have the authority to run air traffic services and collect excise taxes on fuel, but also to deal with matters of public policy in aviation and aerospace. For pilots, this can cover any relevant safety, security, economic, and industrial issues. The FAA bill is traditionally quite large, spanning thousands of pages in legal text and can substantially impact the careers and operating environment of pilots. As a technical matter, the FAA bill is an “authorization,” which means Congress both continues the FAA’s authority to operate but also modifies agency policies and other aviation laws. In contrast, an appropriation bill determines the precise funding levels as established by an authorizing bill; both are necessary for the aviation system.
With the last FAA authorization expiring in 2023, Congress began the process to develop a new bill in 2022. This work is done by the committees of jurisdiction—the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure—which start by soliciting input from stakeholders, holding hearings, and eventually drafting legislation. ALPA works in concert with these committees, their members, and professional staff throughout the process to both advocate the Association’s agenda and assist with drafting provisions to best reflect ALPA’s position and provide technical assistance.
Entering this FAA reauthorization, the Association faced substantial headwinds that complicated defending ALPA members’ careers, the safety of air transportation, and advancing new priorities. As the industry rebounded from the COVID pandemic, airlines, driven by increased aircraft gauge, leisure travel, and the phasing out of regional jets, divested or reduced frequencies to small and rural communities. Simultaneously, both major and low-cost carriers engaged in a massive hiring binge to respond to the quicker-than-expected return of demand for air travel and to help build out their networks. The combination of these issues created regional carrier attrition and redeployment of aircraft and routes to new areas based on consumer demand.
Airlines and the Regional Airline Association shifted the blame they received from smaller communities away from themselves and the market economics driving their decisions to pilots. Airlines suggested that pilot training and qualification requirements established in law in 2010 and codified in regulation in 2013 created a long-term, structural pilot shortage that forced them to abandon small communities beginning in 2021, and the only means to remedy this alleged shortage was to remove and or substantially change pilot training and qualification rules and extend the mandatory pilot retirement age beyond the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Not only have these laws and rules helped create the safest period in U.S aviation history, but ALPA maintained throughout that regional captain attrition was driving regional carrier headcount woes, which was being remedied by record-breaking pilot certifications—all of which remain true as regional airlines are well-staffed by their own statements and, in some cases, have furloughed pilots despite continued cynical claims of a pilot shortage. Major carriers were also highly motivated to use the FAA bill to extinguish pilot rights under state employment laws, including laws governing paid sick and family leave, having failed to win these battles in the courts. Notably, they wanted to amend the Airline Deregulation Act or other federal laws to formally preempt states from granting any state employment rights to pilots.
Despite these headwinds, ALPA had a large agenda that covered the Fair and Open Skies Act, secondary barriers and cargo primary flight deck doors, limitations on the use of foreign aircraft, improvements on cabin air quality and radiation exposure, pilot aeromedical reforms, safety reporting standards, protections related to cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) and NTSB interviews, and the regulation of drones and new entrants, among many other items. The Association pushed these items and sought to defend pilots’ rights and air safety as the committees met for a series of several months beginning in mid-2023 to formally draft the bills prior to introduction. This required ALPA’s Government Affairs staff to work around the clock with professional committee staff to help manage the product that would ultimately be marked up and advanced by the committees.
Unfortunately, as the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure moved to introduce and quickly mark up its version of the FAA bill, it sought to include changes to pilot training and qualification standards, require video recorders on the flight deck, and modify the current statutory pilot retirement age in the base bill. As the committee proceeded to mark up the bill (the means by which it moves a bill out of committee and formally adopts the bill prior to House floor passage), these provisions were removed. However, a change to the pilot retirement age was granted a vote in committee and passed by 32–31, with all Democrats and one Republican opposing, 32 Republicans supporting, and two Republicans abstaining. This outcome was driven by former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) requiring the committee to include a change to the pilot retirement age based on an agreement he made with a Republican member to preserve his weakened speakership. The provision included a change in the pilot retirement statute, allowed for retroactivity for retired pilots to return to the line, gutted legal protections for unions in statute, and would have likely created a system board of adjustment to deal with complicated seniority, bidding, and compensation claims as well as substantial duty of fair representation lawsuits.
ALPA attempted to mobilize to defeat this change using the rules of the House of Representatives. Under the House Committee on Rules—which decides the rules, including amendments, by which bills proceed to the floor—if 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats submit an amendment to the Committee on Rules, it’s supposed to be given a vote. With the support of Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) and Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL), the Association was able to secure more than 20 Republicans and Democrats to strip the pilot retirement age change. Once again, the former speaker intervened by creating a bogus fiscal score to rule the amendment out of order and thus ineligible for a vote. Nonetheless, on the floor, ALPA was still able to remove a provision on granting simulator training credits toward pilot minimum flight hours, add a rulemaking on secondary barriers, and achieve a number of other victories.
Simultaneously, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation worked cooperatively with ALPA for six months to deliver a bill that substantially improved safety and to block efforts to preempt state employment laws and reduced-crew operations (RCO) language, among other issues. On June 15, 2023, the Senate committee rewrote much of the House bill through the evening and at 10 a.m. released a package that included the Fair and Open Skies Act and excluded changes to the pilot retirement age, but also included an alternative pathway and hours reduction to the first officer qualification rule. The Enhanced Qualification Program would have granted 250 hours of credit toward the first officer flight hour minimums for a wholly unstructured and undefined short-term training program. Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) objected as did ALPA, and both the markup and the bill were shelved.
After many fits and starts, including a November 2023 compromise on pilot training, the bill remained sidelined due to Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) insistence on including a change to the pilot retirement age, and the FAA bill was extended three times to stave off a shutdown of the agency. Finally, after considerable efforts by Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the bill was marked up in committee on Feb. 8, 2024. A change to the pilot retirement age was the sole item brought up for a roll call vote, failing 13–14, with all Democrats and Independent Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) voting with ALPA and all committee Republicans voting to raise the age.
Rather than use scarce time on the Senate floor, the House and Senate moved to an informal conference process. Essentially, the committees met in private to reconcile their bills. ALPA was engaged both with the committees and congressional leaders throughout on all items of importance to the Association. In the early hours of April 29, the final bill was released, with a series of ALPA wins, and brought to the Senate floor on May 1 for consideration of amendments. For two weeks, ALPA fought off floor amendments to the retirement age, with the Senate finally abandoning all amendments to ensure passage on May 9 by a 88–4 vote. The House brought up the bill soon after, ratifying the 1,200-page FAA bill 387–26, and President Joe Biden signing H.R. 3935, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, into law.
The final bill includes the following ALPA victories:
- Status Quo: No changes to the retirement age, first officer qualification statute and rules, unstructured “pilot apprenticeships,” flight deck video recordings, and preemptive authority of state labor and employment policy.
- CVRs: Protects against FAA certificate action and employer discipline related to CVRs.
- RCO: Prohibits the FAA’s Unmanned and Autonomous Flight Advisory Committee from reviewing or developing recommendations relating to operations conducted under FAR Part 121.
- Interchange Agreements: Requires that the FAA review and potentially revise interchange lease agreements to ensure that foreign aircraft, including those by a foreign cargo company, can’t be flown within the U.S. for an unlimited duration.
- Cabin Air and Fumes: Requires that a study be completed on cabin air quality and fumes and rulemaking for the FAA to consider requiring onboard monitoring equipment and standards for flight crew notification and mitigation procedures.
- Radiation: Directs the Department of Transportation to enter into an agreement with the National Academies to conduct a study on radiation exposure to crewmembers, including any health impacts, and a report to Congress with recommendations related to mitigation of any health and safety matters.
- Secondary Barriers: Requires an aviation rulemaking committee (ARC) to examine a retrofit of current aircraft to incorporate secondary barriers and a potential rulemaking based on the ARC’s findings to install such barriers.
- Aeromedical Reforms: Creates a task force to review FAA aeromedical matters, including reforms to the special-issuance process and renewals, acceptable medications, updating FAA mental-health protocols, and improving the medical portal.
- Hazardous Materials on Drones: Requires that the FAA take a risk-based approach prior to allowing any of these materials on drones. Industry pushed very hard to require the FAA to allow unlimited quantities and substances of hazardous materials on drones, but ALPA blunted this language in the bill.
- Beyond Visual Line of Sight: Limits efforts to bypass the FAA and codify an industry-dominated ARC product and ensures both remote pilot certification standard and special airworthiness certificates are considered as part of a risk-based approach.
- Recreational Drone Systems: Retains language from the Senate that requires the FAA to approve these drone operations rather than allowing drone operations prior to FAA approval.
- Women in Aviation Advisory Committee: Ensures this committee is made permanent and that pilot training and qualification matters are restricted from the committee’s work.
- Crewmember Pumping Guidance: Requires that the FAA issue guidance to air carriers on how to appropriately allow pumping for nursing mothers aboard aircraft during flight.
- Crewmember Self-Defense Training: Updates crew self-defense training standards to incorporate de-escalation training and protocols for recognition of suspicious individuals as well as nonmandatory flight crew self-defense training.
