Contact Your Senator TODAY - Vote On Pilot's Bill of Rights 2 Tomorrow

ssokol

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Jul 29, 2013
Messages
21
Location
Kansas City
Display Name

Display name:
ssokol
Over the weekend I attended a packed forum at Oshkosh put on by Sen. Jim Inhofe, Rep. Sam Graves, EAA president Jack Pelton and folks from the AOPA advocacy team. The subject was the effort to reform the broken 3rd Class Medical process. Much of the forum dealt with a letter sent by the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) to every senator, urging them to vote against the Pilot's Bill of Rights 2, which includes the reform. The folks on stage urged that we fight back immediately:

The senate is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a critical highway bill. A senator from West Virginia has proposed an amendment that attaches the Pilot's Bill of Rights 2 to this bill. We currently have 55 senators who are signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. We need at least 5 more senators to ensure that it passes. EAA and AOPA both suggest that we all call our senators TODAY and urge them to support this important legislation.

A list of senators who have not yet signed on is available at the bottom of this article: http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/...eeded-on-medical-reform-legislation?CMP=ADV:1

To call your senators, dial the senate switchboard at: (202) 224-3121. The operator will connect you with the appropriate offices. When you get somebody on the line:

  • Explain that you're a constituent and a pilot and that this issue is very important to you
  • Explain that it is also important to the future of aviation in America and in your state
  • Explain that the Pilot's Bill of Rights fixes many broken FAA policies, effectively giving pilots an "innocent until proven guilty" presumption when facing FAA actions.
  • Explain that the aeromedical reform will reduce the cost of flying, making it more approachable
  • Explain that the current 3rd class process does nothing to improve safety and that thousands of Sport and Glider pilots have been flying for the past decade without medicals, and that there have been no negative results
  • Explain that this is a bipartisan issue: it has support from 55 other senators on both sides of the aisle. The amendment was actually proposed by a Democrat.
  • Explain that the language of the Pilot's Bill of Rights has been attached to the surface transportation bill through the Manchin-Boozman amendment
  • Ask that the senator vote for the amendment and the final amended version of the transportation bill

If you get diverted to voicemail, be sure to ask for a callback today. Explain that this is urgent as the vote on the amendment is tomorrow.

Please take this text and email it to friends who are not on PoA. Cross-post it to other forums. Please do it today since the vote is tomorrow!

Best Regards,

Steve
 
My understanding is this is not PBOR2 coming up tomorrow, but rather a more restrictive amendment to a transport bill. This does not have the simple 3rd class exclusion everyone is hoping for; lots of restrictions. This is the insurance company version.
 
http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2015/July/22/Medical-reform-could-be-added-highway-bill

"An amendment to the Senate highway bill now under consideration that includes third class medical reform language has been filed by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.). The amendment, which mirrors language in the Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2, was filed by the two senators who are longtime general aviation advocates. Manchin is also a pilot and AOPA member."

It doesn't mirror what I read, it puts a lot of restrictions on having had a medical or SI. But maybe that's been added to PBOR2 as well. Smells like a sell out to me though, smells like Obamacare.
 
My understanding is this is not PBOR2 coming up tomorrow, but rather a more restrictive amendment to a transport bill. This does not have the simple 3rd class exclusion everyone is hoping for; lots of restrictions. This is the insurance company version.
Correct, but in at least one way it is better: the altitude limit is 18,000 feet instead of 14,000.

The main restriction is basically that you have to qualify for a 3rd class at least once, which can be an SI and it can be expired, but it cannot be revoked, suspended, or withdrawn. Anyone who has held a valid medical within the last 10 years is grandfathered. Once you qualify for the exemption, you're good as long as you go through an online aeromedical education course ever 24 months and get a physical exam at least every 60 months. You only need to interact with OKC again if you develop one of the serious conditions on their short list, basically psychosis, seizure disorder, heart attack, or undergo cardiac valve replacement or open heart surgery.

There is some ambiguity the way it is drafted about whether they are trying to force balloon, sport, and glider pilots into getting a one-time 3rd class as well. I can't believe they would do that, and of course it would make the "sport pilot catch 22" issue moot, in a way that would upset a lot of people.

With that one caveat, I could live with this, and more importantly, it might be the best we can do at this time. If we take an all-or-nothing position on this, we may very well end up with nothing.
 
Right, so everyone who has been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD or other medical disqualification is still screwed. Basically this is the AARP version of the amendment.
 
Anyone who has held a valid medical within the last 10 years is grandfathered.

Exactly how is that grandfathered thing work? Link to the full as written amendment?
 
It doesn't mirror what I read, it puts a lot of restrictions on having had a medical or SI. But maybe that's been added to PBOR2 as well. Smells like a sell out to me though, smells like Obamacare.
Kewl.....If you like your Medical....you can keep it. :goofy:
 
Right, so everyone who has been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD or other medical disqualification is still screwed. Basically this is the AARP version of the amendment.
Well, they have to pay to get the diagnosis disabused if it's ADD/ADHD. Most people with medically disqualifying conditions can eventually get an SI at least ONCE. The dinger is having to pay over and over again to satisfy the FAA that the condition hasn't progressed, for tests that insurance won't cover because they're not medically necessary. This will AT LEAST remove that burden.

It's not perfect, I never said it was. I said it might be the best we can get. Looking at the pushback from the AMA/ASMA/ALPA block, we may not even be able to get this much. :(
 
No way in hell am I putting my email address onto anything from AOPA. Last time I did that it took me damn near a year to get them to stop sending me emails.

Jim
 
You know what it's missing that PBOR2 had: An invalidation of enforcement actions if the regulations are not issued with 180 days.

This will be like Congress telling the FAA to put photos on certificates...the FAA will simply say "We don't have an appropriation to pay for writing these new regulations" and never do it.
No, it's there. Section (e), Prohibition on Enforcement Actions.
 
Called my senators
IN Sen. Dan Coats signed on as a co-sponsor yesterday.
IN Sen. Joe Donnelly has not co-sponsored.
 
It looks to me like a compromise that just "might" have a chance of passing. The PBOR2 has no chance.
 
Back
Top