News from Capitol Hill

ALPA Government Affairs Director Briefs Executive Council on 2010 Legislative Agenda
January 29, 2010 - Brendan Kenny, Director of ALPA’s Government Affairs Department, recently briefed the Executive Council on the priority issues he believes will be on the congressional agenda during 2010. To learn about this legislative agenda, click here.

Tentative Agreement Reached Between Labor and the White House on Employer-Provided Health Care Excise Tax
January 15, 2010 - Late yesterday, a tentative deal was struck between labor and the White House, regarding the excise tax provision in the proposed health care reform legislation. This deal is exactly that—tentative. Some fine points need to be worked through as this legislation is extremely complex. Click here to read more.

House Approves FMLA Amendments, Clears Bill for President’s Signature
December 3, 2009 - By voice vote on December 2, the House approved the Senate-passed bill, S. 1422, that would reduce the hours airline flight crews need to work to qualify for family and medical leave benefits. The legislation is now on President Obama’s desk, awaiting his signature. The Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees that eligible workers can take up to 12 weeks off to care for themselves or a family member. Because of the unique way their work hours are counted, however, pilots and flight attendants have found it difficult, if not impossible, to meet the 1,250-hour per year threshold required for FMLA eligibility. S. 1422, the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act, corrects that inadvertent exclusion and ensures that flight crews will soon have the same benefits other working Americans have enjoyed for years. Click here to read ALPA’s press release on this issue.

House Committee Votes for Regulations on Aircraft Shipment of Lithium Batteries
November 20, 2009 - ALPA prevailed on an important vote on lithium batteries in a key House Committee this week. Coming on the heels of Monday’s field hearing on hazardous materials (read the testimony), on Thursday the House Transportation and Infrastructure reported a reauthorization bill (H.R. 4016) that includes a strong mandate to fully regulate the bulk shipment of lithium batteries on aircraft. An amendment by Republican Robert Latta (OH) to strip the entire section on lithium battery regulations was defeated by a vote of 43-27. We expect there will continue to be attempts by the air carriers, the Air Transport Association, the battery industry and the Chamber of Commerce to strip or weaken the lithium battery provisions as H.R. 4016 moves to the full House of Representatives for consideration. ALPA weighed in heavily before the Committee mark-up and successfully discouraged other amendments to weaken this section (read ALPA’s letter to House Committee). We will continue our outreach and education of all Members of Congress on the critical safety need to fully regulate lithium batteries as cargo.

Health Care Reform
November 16, 2009 - The House of Representatives approved health care reform legislation on November 7. The Senate begins debate on its version of the bill this week. ALPA is playing a leading role in opposing any taxation of employer-provided health care benefits to pay for this overhaul. Click here to learn more about ALPA’s activities, the House-passed bill and the legislative process ahead.

House Passes Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act
October 15, 2009 - The House of Representatives passed, H.R. 3371, the Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act by a vote of 409 to 11 on October 14. This bill builds on ALPA’s agenda to improve pilot training and hiring practices. Click here to read more.

Flying the Extra Mile to Protect U.S. Airline Jobs
September 25, 2009 - Last week, ALPA’s president, Capt. John Prater, was scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about competition concerns regarding international aviation alliances. Unfortunately, the hearing was postponed. Click here to read more.

Much Pending in Washington as Congress Leaves for “District Work Period”
August 14, 2009 - The House and Senate are in recess for the remainder of August and will return to Washington, D.C., on September 8, 2009. Several issues of importance to ALPA members are pending. Click here to read more.

Congress Back at Work on Pilot-Related Issues After Break
June 8, 2009 - Congress returned to work on June 2, and began a busy month of activity on issues that impact airline pilots and ALPA members, including security, safety, and health care reform. Click here to read more.

Congress Works on ALPA Issues Before Leaving for Memorial Day Break
May 21, 2009 - This week, Congress took action on several items of interest to ALPA, including the new FAA Administrator, a new NMB member, the FAA Reauthorization bill, and the Colgan Air Flight 3407 accident. Click here to read more.

92% of ALPA-PAC-Supported Congressional Candidates Win in 2008; ALPA Members Give $1 million to ALPA-PAC for 7th Consecutive Year
February 4, 2009 - The ALPA-PAC Steering Committee announced that the 2008 ALPA-PAC Annual Giving Campaign reached its goal of raising $1 million in voluntary contributions from U.S. ALPA members. The participation rate remained at the 2007 level of 14 percent, or roughly 6,000 pilots, with an average annual contribution of $168.61. Roughly 92 percent, or $920,000, of the revenues came from the ALPA-PAC checkoff program. Click here to read more.

ALPA’s Involvement in the 110th Congress
January 2009 - ALPA’s legislative and political program, as managed by the Government Affairs Department, has two distinct but related missions. The first is to implement ALPA policy on matters before the federal government, especially the Congress; and the second is to oversee ALPA’s political action program, ALPA-PAC. Click here to read more.

ALPA-PAC’s Role in the 2008 Election Cycle
January 2009 - The Air Line Pilots Association Political Action Committee (ALPA-PAC) disbursed roughly $2.4 million dollars to federal candidates and coordinated campaigns in the 2008 election cycle. Click here to read more.

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