Nearly 60 PASS legislative activists from across the country fanned out on Capitol Hill on September 29, meeting with members of Congress and their staff, carrying three important messages to lawmakers:

1) Keep the government open and provide the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with predictable, full-year funding. PASS represents 11,000 FAA employees. All FAA employees perform mission-critical work every day to keep the National Airspace System (NAS) safe and operational. Government shutdowns disrupt hiring, training, maintenance, modernization, safety oversight and other essential functions. Shutdowns also create uncertainty for the workforce, taking a toll on working families. Congress should provide the FAA with a full-year appropriation and ensure employees do not face the uncertainty of missing a paycheck.

2) Invest in the FAA workforce by recruiting, hiring, training, and ultimately retaining these highly skilled employees. PASS urges Congress to recognize that staffing of all FAA positions is critical to the health of the aviation safety ecosystem. A professional, trained FAA workforce is needed  to protect the nation’s airspace and the American flying public. The FAA’s FY2027 budget request recognizes the need to strengthen its workforce.

3) Build the new air traffic control system with PASS. The administration has set out on an ambitious plan to modernize the NAS with its Brand New Air Traffic Control System, or BNATCS. The FAA needs to put the PASS workforce at the table from design through deployment and sustainment. Congress has made a historic investment to modernize infrastructure and the administration and the FAA have committed to replacing outdated technologies. PASS-represented employees on the front lines are vital to this effort. They have the hands-on expertise to install, maintain, certify and sustain the technologies that will make BNATCS a reality.

The PASS members who came to DC (using their annual leave to do so) are building relationships with members of Congress and their staff that will not only strengthen the efforts to modernize the airspace with more congressional funding, but will also protect the safety of all who take to the skies.