{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=7D819596-B251-4B5C-A3A3-F85E56BC48FE", "Thune Calls on Democrat Leaders to Stop Obstructing FAA Reauthorization", "2023-09-20", "2023", "2023-09", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke on the Senate floor about the urgent need to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and pass his and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema\u2019s (I-Ariz.) amendment that would enhance aviation safety. Thune noted that Senate Democrat leadership has put the FAA reauthorization in jeopardy by preventing the Senate Commerce Committee from advancing this critical legislation.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, on Monday the Democrat leader came down to the floor to discuss the continuing resolution the House proposed.\n\n\u201cAnd he criticized it for, among other things, making, quote, \u2018[n]o attempt to reauthorize the FAA.\u2019\n\n\u201cMaking \u2018no attempt to reauthorize the FAA.\u2019\n\n\u201cMr. President, apparently it\u2019s slipped the Democrat leader\u2019s mind that the Senate is currently making no attempt to reauthorize the FAA either.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s been 97 days since the Democrat chair of the Commerce Committee halted consideration of the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization at the beginning of the scheduled markup because the Democrat leader objected to a bipartisan amendment Senator Sinema and I planned to offer.\n\n\u201cAn amendment to improve aviation safety by implementing a structured, rigorous training program for prospective airline pilots.\n\n\u201cMr. President, current training requirements for airline pilots require 1,500 hours of flight time, primarily in the cockpit \u2013 although military pilots and those with a bachelor\u2019s or associate\u2019s degree in aviation can receive credit for some of those hours.\n\n\u201cI recognize the value of cockpit experience and see time in real aircraft as an essential part of training airline pilots.\n\n\u201cBut those 1,500 hours alone are not always the ideal preparation for flying commercial jets or training truly well-rounded pilots.\n\n\u201cFor starters, the majority of the 1,500 hours are generally completed in small, single-engine aircraft, which have very little relevance to regional or large jetliners in terms of flight characteristics and instrumentation.\n\n\u201cLittle to none of the currently required flight hours \u2013 which aspiring airline pilots must seek out and complete on their own \u2013 are accumulated in the type of aircraft that these pilots will be flying should they get a job with an airline.\n\n\u201cIn fact, current rules would theoretically allow some of those hours to be completed in a hot air balloon \u2013 not exactly preparation for flying a 787 across the ocean.\n\n\u201cMr. President, to address these deficiencies and better prepare pilots for airline jobs, seven years ago the Air Carrier Training Aviation Rulemaking Committee \u2013 a body of industry, labor, and safety representatives who meet regularly under the auspices of the FAA\u2019s Office of Aviation Safety \u2013 developed and recommended the implementation of an Enhanced Qualification Program that would create a structured pathway for pilots to obtain intensive training.\n\n\u201cThat is exactly the type of program that our amendment would create.\n\n\u201cFollowing the recommendations of the Air Carrier Training Aviation Rulemaking Committee, our amendment would implement a two-month Enhanced Qualification Program, designed and audited by the FAA and administered by air carriers, that would give aspiring airline pilots intensive training both in the classroom and in simulators with experienced air carrier pilots and other experts.\n\n\u201cIndividuals who successfully completed the program would be given a 250-hour credit toward their restricted airline transport pilot license \u2013 similar to the credits currently given for undergraduate work in aviation.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the Enhanced Qualification Program in our amendment would significantly improve pilot training \u2013 and passenger safety.\n\n\u201cAs I said, intensive training in the kind of air carrier environment where prospective airline pilots will be flying is something that is largely missing from current training.\n\n\u201cAnd getting the chance to work closely with seasoned pilots would help turn out highly qualified pilots who are better prepared for flying commercial jets.\n\n\u201cIn addition, our program\u2019s use of simulator training \u2013 whose proven value has resulted in its extensive use by the military \u2013 would give prospective airline pilots exposure to the cockpits of the jets they would be flying and, crucially, allow them to experience what it\u2019s like to handle challenging and dangerous situations in those cockpits.\n\n\u201cFor obvious reasons, standard flight training hours don\u2019t involve deliberately flying into perilous weather conditions or dealing with things like fires or engine failure.\n\n\u201cBut simulator training offers prospective airline pilots the chance to deal with all those situations, and more \u2013 and deal with them again and again until their response to these situations is fine-tuned.\n\n\u201cAnd you don\u2019t have to take my word for it.\n\n\u201cA bipartisan group of former FAA administrators and former presidents of the Air Line Pilots Association recently sent a letter to the chairs and vice-chairs of the relevant House and Senate committees wholeheartedly endorsing the kind of simulator training our amendment would provide.\n\n\u201cLet me just read a little bit from that letter:\n\n\u201c\u2018[F]acilitating the adoption of new technologies that enhance safety should be a bedrock principle for government and industry alike. \u2026 Since the tragic crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 almost 15 years ago, there have been significant advances in technology that are incorporated into a pilot\u2019s training upon an airline hiring them, but these technologies have not improved the 1,500-hour path to becoming an airline pilot.\n\n\u201c\u2018Modern, state-of-the-art flight simulators accurately recreate the experience of flight operations in a fully immersive experience, forcing pilots to encounter aircraft malfunctions, including rare events like rapid decompressions, emergency descents, high-speed rejected takeoffs, dual engine failures, severe icing conditions, flight control malfunctions and full stalls, all without placing any lives in danger. \u2026\n\n\u201c\u2018Simulators also present the opportunity to incorporate actual accident and incident scenarios into training. \u2026 Like training for an athletic endeavor, a high volume of repetitions of high-quality exercises improves performance and \u2018muscle memory.\u2019 Requiring the repeated practice of the prevention of and recovery from myriad real-world accident scenarios in full-motion flight simulators will make better pilots.\u2019\n\n\u201cAs I said, Mr. President, that is from a letter sent to the relevant committee chairs and vice-chairs by a bipartisan group of former FAA administrators and Air Line Pilots Association presidents.\n\n\u201cA letter that clearly demonstrates the value of the kind of program Senator Sinema\u2019s and my amendment would establish for improving pilot training and passenger safety.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I suspect if put to a vote in the Commerce Committee \u2013 or on the Senate floor \u2013 there\u2019s a good chance that our amendment would pass \u2013 which is presumably why the Democrat leader is blocking any chance for a vote.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s less clear why the leader is opposed to the substance of our legislation.\n\n\u201cDoes he really think we can\u2019t improve upon 1,500 hours of training largely undertaken in a single-engine prop plane?\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s not exactly the ideal preparation for flying a commercial jet.\n\n\u201cA program that better prepares prospective airline pilots for the planes they will actually be flying seems like a no-brainer.\n\n\u201cBut, regardless, the Democrat leader has every right to oppose our amendment.\n\n\u201cWhat is inappropriate is not his opposition, but the fact that he is using his position as majority leader to block committee debate on this amendment \u2013 which has had the practical effect of blocking the entire bill.\n\n\u201cThe Commerce Committee and the Senate as a whole are set up for debate and amendment.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re not set up with the intention of having a single individual determine legislative outcomes.\n\n\u201cWhen I was chairman of the Commerce Committee, bipartisan debate and amendment was the order of the day \u2013 and it helped produce a lot of strong pieces of legislation, including the longest reauthorization of the FAA since 1982.\n\n\u201cAnd if the Democrat leader would loosen his hold and stop trying to engineer the legislative outcome he wants, we could get another bipartisan FAA reauthorization bill out of committee and onto the Senate floor.\n\n\u201cAs the leader correctly indicated, the FAA reauthorization is an important piece of legislation.\n\n\u201cSo, Mr. President, I encourage him to allow it to proceed through the committee and come to the floor for a vote.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:35:26Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=7D819596-B251-4B5C-A3A3-F85E56BC48FE"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9659579955041409, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}