HAI Says Members Should Contact Elected Representatives

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies will hold a hearing to review the Fiscal Year 2017 and Fiscal Year 2018 funding request and budget justification for the Veterans Health Administration and Veterans Benefit Administration on Thursday, March 3, at 11:00 a.m.

legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month capped veterans’ flight-training benefits. The U.S. Senate is now one step away from passing a bill – that has already passed the House -- that would cap total Veterans’ Administration (VA) reimbursement for veterans in flight training at $20,235 per year if they are involved in a four-year aviation degree.

The program costs for flight instruction in a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft greatly exceed this amount of funding. In addition, the VA will no longer pay for a private pilot license. Veterans will be required to shoulder this cost on their own or possess a private pilot license before matriculating into a commercial aviation degree program. The cost to obtain a private pilot license averages over $20,000.

HAI believes the House-passed bill, H.R. 3016, is a disservice to veterans who honorably earned the right to use VA educational benefits. The draconian approach to cost savings will damage the helicopter and entire aviation industry by making it much harder for qualified veterans to enter the civilian aviation industry as commercial pilots.

The motive to cap VA flight training payments is to save money. However, the Congressional Budget Office says the savings envisioned by not only the House congressional committee spearheading this legislation, but also the VA, cannot be realized. Meanwhile, 600 veterans per year will be denied access to flight training with the enactment of H.R. 3016. Over time this will impact the already worsening pilot shortage.

If you are a seasoned commercial helicopter pilot, the owner/operator of a commercial helicopter operation, or are currently enrolled in flight training, this is an issue that will most certainly have long-term effects on you and our entire industry.

HAI strongly encourages you to weigh in with your two U.S. senators on veterans' access to VA flight training benefits. If your senator is a member of either the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies or the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (see the list below), it is especially important that you communicate to them the helicopter industry's concerns over this issue.

Contact information for U.S. Senate offices may be found at www.senate.gov. It is very easy to use the links on the Senate website to send an email to your elected senators in Washington, DC, on this very important issue.

HAI says veterans will be significantly harmed by these cuts, and in turn, the commercial helicopter pilot shortage will worsen as the available pool of helicopter pilots continues to shrink.

Caps on flight-training benefits for veterans deprives them of the ability to pursue collegiate flight training, a common path to a career as a commercial helicopter pilot. Helicopter flight training is complex and very expensive because of the high costs associated with operating a rotorcraft.

Requiring veterans to cover the costs associated with their private-pilot license is a discriminatory financial burden the majority of veterans can ill afford.

HAI urges members to pick up the phone and call Washington or email your elected House or Senate members today and voice your concern over this bill that denies veterans their rightful benefits and will further increase the pilot shortage that is already affecting the helicopter aviation industry.

(Source: HAI news release)

FMI: www.rotor.org