Prepared Statement Presented To Senate Committee On Veterans’ Affairs Prior To Hearing

Prior to a hearing Wednesday, five well-known aviation organizations presented a prepared joint statement to the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs with a message that monetary caps on flight training hurts veterans.

In the statement jointly prepared by HAI, AOPA, GAMA, NASAO, NBAA, the groups said that "capping funds available to veterans enrolled in flight training degree programs at public colleges and universities would leave veterans with far too little money to achieve their educational goals and is discriminatory because only flight training degree programs would be subject to the cap.

"In attempting to address the discriminatory nature of the House proposal, the Senate has instead created a provision that is destined to harm even more of the very people the Post 9/11 GI Bill was intended to help — veterans of the United States’ Armed Forces — and yet will fail to address the discriminatory nature of the provision. To the best of industry’s knowledge, flight training is the only degree program for which colleges and universities normally contract such programs of education.

"Under the current language of the Post 9/11 GI Bill (Public Law 110-252), public colleges and universities are allowed to partner with flight schools to offer aviation degree programs that lead to FAA pilot certifications and careers in the aviation industry. The law allows flight training expenses, which include hourly aircraft rental fees and the instructor’s hourly rate, to be treated as course fees," the statement continues.

"The Senate’s discussion draft affects the entire flight training industry. However, due to significantly higher fixed operating costs (primarily maintenance-related) for helicopters, it has a disproportionate effect on helicopter flight training. In addition, the Department of Veterans Affairs initially raised its concerns with regard to fees charged at certain helicopter flight schools. Therefore much of the industry research has focused on helicopter flight training."

The groups urged the committee to remove section 3 from the discussion draft document and "continue to fulfill the promises made to America’s veterans in the Post-9/11 GI Bill." They also request that the Department of Veterans Affairs be directed to enforce its own regulations uniformly, and ask that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a study of the flight training industry and the associated costs for a commercial rotorcraft certificate with IFR, CFI and CFII ratings.

FMI: Full Statement