AOPA urges Senate to bring the Federal Aviation Reauthorization bill to the floor

The Honorable Trent Lott
Majority Leader
United States Senate
487 Russell Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Lott:

The aviation community has been eager to move forward with a long-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration for several years. As you know, there have been three short-term extensions since the 1996 authorization bill expired, and the FAA is currently operating without an authorization, yet the bill seems to be no nearer to completion than it was in June. Although we understand the time constraints of the Senate, we believe this legislation is important, and we respectfully urge you to schedule floor time for consideration of the FAA reauthorization bill as soon as possible.

Over the past two years, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and others in the aviation community have had ample time to review the issues addressed in S.82. The Senate Commerce Committee has fostered an open and fair process that led to the resolution of many questions and concerns we had with the legislation. However, we understand many entirely new provisions are being discussed and possibly added to the manager’s amendment, which may become the basis of any negotiations with the House leadership and the administration. We are concerned there will be no time to review or provide input on these new provisions, some of which may prove unintentionally damaging to general aviation.

We appreciate the fact there are several controversial issues in the bill that have not yet been resolved. If the schedule or other concerns prevent floor consideration of the bill, we ask you to introduce the manager’s amendment currently under development as a separate bill, so we can review the new issues included in it.

Please do what you can to ensure this long-awaited legislation does not devolve into a final product that is hastily designed behind closed doors. On behalf of the over 350,000 AOPA members nationwide, we thank you for taking our views into consideration.

Sincerely,

Phil Boyer
President

September 14, 1999

The Honorable Thomas Daschle
Minority Leader
United States Senate
509 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Daschle:

The aviation community has been eager to move forward with a long-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration for several years. As you know, there have been three short-term extensions since the 1996 authorization bill expired, and the FAA is currently operating without an authorization, yet the bill seems to be no nearer to completion than it was in June. Although we understand the time constraints of the Senate, we believe this legislation is important, and we respectfully urge you to schedule floor time for consideration of the FAA reauthorization bill as soon as possible.

Over the past two years, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and others in the aviation community have had ample time to review the issues addressed in S.82. The Senate Commerce Committee has fostered an open and fair process that led to the resolution of many questions and concerns we had with the legislation. However, we understand many entirely new provisions are being discussed and possibly added to the manager’s amendment, which may become the basis of any negotiations with the House leadership and the administration. We are concerned there will be no time to review or provide input on these new provisions, some of which may prove unintentionally damaging to general aviation.

We appreciate the fact there are several controversial issues in the bill that have not yet been resolved. If the schedule or other concerns prevent floor consideration of the bill, we ask you to introduce the manager’s amendment currently under development as a separate bill, so we can review the new issues included in it.

Please do what you can to ensure this long-awaited legislation does not devolve into a final product that is hastily designed behind closed doors. On behalf of the over 350,000 AOPA members nationwide, we thank you for taking our views into consideration.

Sincerely,

Phil Boyer
President

September 14, 1999