[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 99 (Wednesday, July 6, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4397-S4401]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. INHOFE (for himself, Mr. Begich, Mr. Johanns, Mr. Boozman, 
        Ms. Snowe, Mr. Moran, Mr. Pryor, Ms. Collins, Mr. Crapo, Mr. 
        Thune, Mr. Cornyn, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Enzi, Mr. 
        Burr, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. Coats, Mr. Hoeven, Mr. 
        Isakson, Mr. Johnson of Wisconsin, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Blunt, Mr. 
        Coburn, Mr. Risch, and Mr. Wicker):
  S. 1335. A bill to amend title 49, United States Code, to provide 
rights for pilots, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, just a few minutes ago I did introduce and 
we have a bill number that is S. 1335. It is the Pilot's Bill of 
Rights. It is very significant that we get this done today, and I will 
explain why.
  First of all, when Senator John Glenn from Ohio retired, that left me 
as the last active commercial pilot in the Senate. Consequently, I 
probably get more complaints than anybody else does about problems and 
abuses with the FAA.
  I have to say this: I was very complimentary yesterday to so many of 
the people. The vast majority of the inspectors, the controllers, and 
others at the FAA are so talented. In fact, the first thing I do when I 
go up to Oshkosh every year, the largest air show in the world, is I go 
up to where they are all gathered together and I compliment them on the 
fact that they are taking on the toughest job for a 6-day period in 
Oshkosh as a volunteer. So I love their virtues. However, we have to 
keep in mind that any bureaucracy can become abusive.
  So I have introduced the Pilot's Bill of Rights. The reason I am 
speaking right now is because we have 25 cosponsors at this time, which 
means 25 percent of the Senate has signed on as cosponsors.
  The way the rules work around here, any of the Members who might be 
listening right now--and I know the occupier of the Chair is very 
concerned about this and he is very active with me on this 
legislation--any staffers who are watching, they should advise their 
Members that they have until close of business today, probably 1 more 
hour, to put their names down as original cosponsors.
  Now, the bill simply does four things. First of all, it requires the 
FAA, for any enforcement action, to make sure the pilot is fully aware 
of what he is being accused of before any ultimatums are put forth. 
Consequently, that pilot is able to defend himself.
  The second thing is it clarifies what they call statutory deference. 
Right now, statutory deference relates to the National Transportation 
Safety Board. The NTSB is the only area of appeal, so that if a pilot 
is accused of something and he looks at it and thinks it is unfair, he 
would have to go to the NTSB. Yet because of deference, they merely 
rubberstamp in almost all cases what the FAA does. As an example, of 
the emergency determinations that were made last year, only one was 
actually granted and the rest of them were denied. This bill will 
allow, in terms of fairness, that if something is going on and they 
refuse to consider a case, there will be an appellate process where the 
pilot can go to the Federal District Court and be heard there.
  The third thing it does is it has to do with notice. That is notice 
to airmen. That is very significant. Those of us who are pilots know 
that when we go into a field, we check and see what the NOTAMs are, so 
that if there is any work on the runway, any problem there, any 
taxiways that are closed, they will give the pilot that information. 
However, the problem is it is the pilot's responsibility to do this and 
the FAA many times doesn't even post these NOTAMs. So what we are 
saying with our FARs, or our laws, is we are saying to a pilot, You 
have to be responsible to know what is going on at the airport, where 
you are going to be landing. Yet there is no place you can find out. So 
this requires that they revamp this system so that there is a central 
location. We specify that in the legislation, so that can be found.
  Then the fourth and final thing, there is another problem in terms of 
medical certification. Those of us who are pilots have to have medicals 
and we have to have a certification process. This has been a problem 
for a long period of time. I have had countless people call me and talk 
about the problems they are having with their medical certification. In 
fact, of all the requests for assistance to the Aircraft Owners and 
Pilots Association--they represent hundreds of thousands of pilots--of 
all the requests for assistance they receive each year, 28 percent are 
related to the FAA's medical certification process. So I would say this 
of this very simple legislation. Two sections actually change the 
statutes so that it offers protection to pilots, but

[[Page S4401]]

the other two are working together to come up with a system where we 
can have a central location for NOTAMs as well as having a fair process 
for medical evaluations.
  I think it is very obvious that there are a lot of bureaucracies 
where one or two people can be bad. When I was in Tulsa, I can remember 
all it took was one or two bad cops and that gave a black eye to 
everybody else. I remember actually, when I was running--it is the 
whole reason I ran for office in the first place. When I was out in the 
private sector, I was doing things that I thought I was supposed to be 
doing, and I had one old building called the Wrightsman Oil Estate. I 
was going to take this old eyesore and make it into a building and 
preserve it as it was originally. Old, in my city of Tulsa, OK, in this 
case was maybe 1910 or 1912. We weren't even a State until 1907. This 
is something everybody wanted.
  I went to the city engineer and I said, I want to take this eyesore 
of a fire escape on the second floor and move it from the south to the 
north end. It is the same thing; it will service the same number of 
people, but it is an eyesore and this gets it out of the way. No one is 
against it. He said, You can't do that until this committee meets. So 
let's see. You have to have notice. That would be 3 more weeks before 
you can get notice. A month after that, you can get on the agenda. I 
said, Look, everyone is for it. He said, That is your problem, not 
mine. I said, I will run for mayor and fire you, and I did, and I fired 
him. This can happen in any bureaucracy.
  So the reason there is a sense of urgency is because we have already 
told all of the groups--the Experimental Aircraft Association, ALPA, 
all of these groups that represent these different organizations--that 
we are going to be getting this bill ready with all of our original 
cosponsors and then cosponsors so that when we arrive and when I arrive 
at the end of July, at Oshkosh, WI, I am going to do the same thing I 
did in 1994 that caused us to be able to pass the first product 
liability bill on aviation and aviation products that had the effect of 
changing us from a major importer of aviation products and of airplanes 
to a major exporter, just by changing that. It was an 18-year repose 
bill. I did that at Oshkosh with an audience of 200,000 people. These 
are single issue people. I can assure my colleagues that they will be 
just as interested in this bill.
  So I will be presenting this, and I am going to encourage Members of 
the Senate who want to get their name in today, they can be cosponsors, 
original cosponsors, as is the occupier of the chair at the present 
time, and myself, and 23 other Members of the Senate.
  One last reminder. This is S. 1335. This is the last chance. 
Colleagues have 1 more hour to be an original cosponsor. I hope my 
colleagues will join me in sponsoring this legislation.

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