[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18507-18508]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           PILOT FATIGUE RULE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Higgins) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HIGGINS. In February 2009, tragedy struck western New York when 
Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed outside of Buffalo. The 
National Transportation Safety Board found that one of the principal 
causes of the crash was pilot fatigue, so Congress passed landmark 
aviation legislation to reform the system.
  One of the key provisions required that the Federal Aviation 
Administration update flight and duty time rules and set minimum rest 
requirements for airline pilots by August 1, 2011. Congressional intent 
was clear. That should have been enough time. After all, the National 
Transportation Safety Board had urged that pilot fatigue rules be 
updated for the past 20 years.
  Getting it right is also about getting it done. Yet here we are 
today, 16 months after Congress asked the Federal Aviation 
Administration to issue these reforms and 4 months past the deadline we 
gave them, and still no pilot fatigue rule.

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  That is unacceptable to me, that is unacceptable to my colleagues 
from western New York, and it is unacceptable to the flying public.
  I urge the Federal Aviation Administration to complete the pilot 
fatigue rule immediately.

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