HOUSE PASSES KEY AMENDMENT TO PRESERVE AIR SAFETY

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Published: July 18, 2013

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Amendment Passes With Bipartisan Support, Ensuring Federal Role in Safety of American Air Travel

WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the House of Representatives passed a key amendment that prohibits the privatization of 58 flight service stations and the ultimate closing of 38 of these facilities. The Sanders-Hostettler-Herseth-LoBiondo-DeLauro-Shays amendment (to HR 3058, the House Transportation, Treasury, HUD, Judiciary, and District of Columbiaappropriations bill)passed 238 to 177.

Tom Brantley, national presidentof the Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS), the union representing FAA technical employees who maintain and certify equipment critical to the safe operation of the flight service stations, praised the amendment’s passage:

“We are very pleased that the House acted in the best interest of the American flying public when it passed the amendment earlier today to ensure that the FAA does not compromise aviation safety by outsourcing a vital segment of air traffic control.

Closing these critical flight service stations could have irreversibly damaged the safety of the American aviation system. This amendment averts that crisis by preserving the roles of the well-trained and professional federal employees who work to ensure the safety of air travel in our country.

Flight service stations, and the employees who work in them, provide a variety of services, including weather briefings, en route communications, flight planning and search-and-rescue services, to the more than 600,000 general aviation pilots.  These jobs are simply too important to air safety to contract them out to private companies whose primary motivation is profits, not safety.

We are also grateful to Representatives Sanders, Hostettler, Herseth, LoBiondo, DeLauro and Shays for their leadership and to the members of the House who voted in favor of such an important amendment.”

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PASS represents more than 11,000 employees of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense who install, maintain, support and certify air traffic control and national defense equipment, inspect and oversee the commercial and general aviation industries, develop flight procedures and perform quality analyses of the aviation systems. For more information, visit the PASS website at www.passnational.org.