WASHINGTON, DC — Last night, Representative Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, led a letter joined by 121 Members of Congress urging House Democratic leadership to reject any changes to the pilot retirement age in a final version of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill.
As it stands currently, the House version of the bill included a provision to increase the pilot retirement age from 65 to 67 years old, while the Senate bill did not include any changes to the retirement age. As negotiations proceed between the House and Senate on a final FAA bill, the letter asks House Democratic leadership to reject attempts to change the pilot retirement age. In the letter, the members outline the impacts of raising the retirement age on labor contracts, safety, and compliance with international standards.
During floor consideration of the House FAA reauthorization bill, Rep. García co-led an amendment with more than three dozen other Members to remove the statutory change to the pilot retirement age that was added during the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee markup of the bill.
“We implore you to consider the adverse impacts of raising the pilot retirement age. This action would have consequences across the aviation industry, including placing airlines in noncompliance with the international safety standard, requiring hard fought collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) to be reopened, creating flight operation difficulties and training complications, and reducing pilot utilization,” the members write.
“Significant changes to U.S. aviation policy, especially ones that have consequential implications to both international aviation safety standards and airline operations, should not be enacted against the wishes of our own regulatory bodies. As both chambers work together to reach an agreement on differences between their respective bills, we urge you to support the Senate position on pilot retirement age and reject any provision related to the pilot retirement age,” the members continued.
A copy of the letter can be found here.
Co-signers of the letter are: Colin Allred, Gabe Amo, Jake Auchincloss, Nanette Barragán, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Jamaal Bowman, Brendan Boyle, Julia Brownley, Nikki Budzinski, Cori Bush, Yadira Caraveo, Salud Carbajal, Tony Cárdenas, André Carson, Troy Carter, Matt Cartwright, Greg Casar, Sean Casten, Joaquin Castro, Judy Chu, Yvette Clarke, Jim Costa, Joe Courtney, Angie Craig, Jason Crow, Sharice Davids, Danny Davis, Madeleine Dean, Diana DeGette, Suzan DelBene, Chris Deluzio, Mark DeSaulnier, Debbie Dingell, Lloyd Doggett, Adriano Espaillat, Bill Foster, Maxwell Frost, Ruben Gallego, John Garamendi, Robert Garcia, Jimmy Gomez, Vicente Gonzalez, Josh Gottheimer, Steven Horsford, Val Hoyle, Jared Huffman, Sheila Jackson Lee, Pramila Jayapal, Hank Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, Ro Khanna, Dan Kildee, Derek Kilmer, Andy Kim, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Greg Landsman, Summer Lee, Teresa Leger Fernandez, Mike Levin, Ted Lieu, Stephen Lynch, Betty McCollum, Morgan McGarvey, James McGovern, Robert Menendez, Grace Meng, Gwen Moore, Seth Moulton, Frank Mrvan, Kevin Mullin, Jerrold Nadler, Grace Napolitano, Donald Norcross, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Frank Pallone, Jimmy Panetta, Chris Pappas, Bill Pascrell, Donald Payne, Mark Pocan, Katie Porter, Mike Quigley, Delia Ramirez, Jamie Raskin, Deborah Ross, Raul Ruiz, Patrick Ryan, Linda Sánchez, Mary Scanlon, Jan Schakowsky, Adam Schiff, Brad Schneider, Kim Schrier, Mikie Sherrill, Elissa Slotkin, Adam Smith, Darren Soto, Melanie Stansbury, Haley Stevens, Marilyn Strickland, Eric Swalwell, Emilia Sykes, Mark Takano, Bennie Thompson, Mike Thompson, Dina Titus, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Tokuda, Norma Torres, Lori Trahan, David Trone, Juan Vargas, Gabe Vasquez, Marc Veasey, Nydia Velázquez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Susan Wild, Nikema Williams.
Organizations endorsing the letter include: Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Transportation Trades Department, AFL–CIO (TTD).
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