Takes Key AOPA Member Concerns To Congressional Leaders
AOPA President Phil
Boyer has been pressing the concerns of pilots on user fees,
airport security, and airports with key members of Congress during
a series of meetings over the past week. Legislators are working on
the federal budget for fiscal year 2005 and the associated
policies.
Most recently, Boyer met with Senate Assistant Minority Leader
Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the second ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate
and a member of the Senate transportation appropriations
subcommittee. Boyer stressed the importance of protecting the core
functions of the FAA's ATC system from privatization and the
creation of a user fee-funded system for general aviation.
"Preventing user fees remains a core issue for AOPA members
across the country," said Boyer. "AOPA's members see privatizing
ATC as the first step towards a costly user fee system that could
severely restrict the accessibility of flying for general aviation
pilots."
Boyer also met with Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the most senior
Democrat on the House aviation subcommittee, raising similar
concerns. Boyer was joined by Jon Hixson, vice president of
Legislative Affairs and head of AOPA's Washington, D.C., office.
The meeting served as a follow-up to a March House aviation
subcommittee hearing led by Rep. DeFazio and aviation subcommittee
Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.). That hearing focused on reopening
Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport (DCA) to general
aviation and eliminating the Baltimore-Washington Air Defense
Identification Zone (ADIZ).
Boyer and DeFazio also
talked about protecting local airports. Specifically, they
discussed a plan at Eugene, Oregon's Mahlon Sweet Field that calls
for closing the crosswind runway. GA pilots who operate there are
strongly opposed to the plan, saying it will have a significant
negative impact on safety there. Boyer's meeting with DeFazio
followed a local meeting earlier last week in which AOPA Regional
Representative Mike Ferguson met with local pilots and local and
state officials.
"We want to ensure that general aviation is not saddled with
user fees, overzealous security initiatives, or initiatives that
adversely affect local airports," explained Boyer. "When we go to
the Hill, we do so as the representatives of more than 400,000
members, and that gives what we say added weight."