Yesterday several members of the negotiating committee spent time on Capitol Hill talking to members of Congress. We were accompanied by Jack Albertine our lobbyist. Our main issue was the overseas outsourcing provisions in the House and Senate FAA Reauthorization bills. This trip was much different than previous trips as far as support for the single standard for aircraft maintenance. This is needed to create a level playing field for our profession. Every Representative was very supportive of this and understood the need for these provisions. The hope now is that the Senate will pass this bill prior to the end of the year and it can then proceed to a conference committee. The hope is that once it reaches the conference committee the House provisions will prevail as that version is viewed as a better provision by the IBT.
We also discussed the Express Carrier provision and found support for that as well. The final piece of legislation discussed was the Pilot Duty time safety bill introduced by Rep. Costello. This bill would limit duty times for regional pilots with the hope that this would reduce fatigue.
In the previous meetings there was a need to educate these Representatives on what we do and why we need this relief. It is obvious that the IBT spent a lot of time crafting our message and presenting it in a manner Congress could understand. Without the continual lobbying by the Airline Division I suspect we would not be as close as we are to final passage. Please take the time to contact your Senators and ask that the FAA Reauthorization bill is passed.
That's all for now,
Bob
