Building momentum: Sen. Inhofe Updates Progress on Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2

September 25, 2015 – Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), a longtime pilot and EAA member, took to the Senate floor on Thursday to update his colleagues on the Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2 and urge those senators not yet supporting the measure to sign on.

During his address, Sen. Inhofe also outlined the modifications to the original bill (S.571) that he deemed necessary to draw the support of more than 50 additional Senators since he introduced it last February.

“This bill is vitally important to the 617,000 pilots in our country,” Sen. Inhofe said. “Ten years ago, the introduction of sport pilot eligibility gave an opportunity to fly with modified medical certification. After 10 years, the medical safety experience has been positive.”

Sen. Inhofe cited an AOPA Air Safety Institute study of the more than 46,000 aircraft accidents over the past decade, which found that less than one quarter of one percent of all accidents had medical factors involved. Of those, almost none would have been prevented through the current third-class medical certification process.

Sen. Inhofe also mentioned the provisions now in the bill that would allow pilots to fly without the ongoing requirement for a third class medical:

1)      Pilots would be required to complete an online aeromedical course every two years. The course would boost aviation safety by bringing the latest information on aeromedical factors to pilots.

2)      Pilots would need to see their personal physicians at least once every four years and be treated for any conditions that could affect their health. A pilot could then simply note that visit in their logbook without the need to see an AME or file any reports to the FAA.

3)      Any pilot who has not held a valid medical certificate within the past ten years or new pilots would be required to obtain a one-time 3^rd class medical or special issuance to establish a health baseline. Once approved, no further AME visit or FAA certification would be required.

4)      The existence or onset of several specifically listed conditions might warrant a one-time special issuance such as serious psychological and neurological conditions, as well as cardiac conditions requiring open-heart surgery. Successful completion of this one-time special issuance would permit the airman to continue seeing their personal physician thereafter.

The bill also added provisions directing the FAA to study easing the special issuance process and to expand the Conditions AMEs Can Issue (CACI) program.

“EAA and AOPA have joined with Sen. Inhofe and his staff in tireless work to draw nearly two-thirds of the Senate in bipartisan support of this bill,” said EAA chairman Jack Pelton. “We appreciate Sen. Inhofe’s deep understanding of the Senate and his colleagues to bring this many senators behind this legislation.”

Moving legislation through Congress is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is not an easy straight line. The accommodations made by Senator Inhofe to his original proposal proved necessary to address specific and broad based concerns expressed by Senators to the bill as introduced.

The current construct gives the FAA the authority to look one time at an airman to establish their baseline eligibility to fly, then places the ongoing care and monitoring of a pilot’s health in the hands of the pilot and their personal physician, which is where EAA believes it should rightfully be. The GA community is now farther than it has ever been in pushing meaningful medical reform, eliminating much of the bureaucratic paperwork and cost for the vast majority of GA pilots.

EAA and AOPA also joined Sen. Inhofe’s call to any senators not currently on board to support the bill. EAA members in states where one or both senators have not become co-sponsors are urged to contact their lawmakers and ask them to join the overwhelming bipartisan support for the measure.

Have further questions on the language of the bill as it currently stands? See our FAQ.

Current PBOR2 Cosponsors
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby Sen. Jeff Sessions	Hawaii Neither Senator is currently a cosponsor	Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren	New Mexico Neither Senator is currently a cosponsor	South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski Sen. Dan Sullivan	Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo Sen. James Risch	Michigan Neither Senator is currently a cosponsor	New York Neither Senator is currently a cosponsor	Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander
Arizona Sen. John McCain Sen. Jeff Flake	Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk	Minnesota Neither Senator is currently a cosponsor	North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr Sen. Thom Tillis	Texas Sen. John Cornyn Sen. Ted Cruz
Arkansas Sen. John Boozman Sen. Tom Cotton	Indiana Sen. Daniel Coats Sen. Joe Donnelly	Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran Sen. Roger Wicker	North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven Sen. Heidi Heitkamp	Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch Sen. Mike Lee
California Neither Senator is currently a cosponsor	Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley Sen. Joni Ernst	Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt	Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown Sen. Rob Portman	Vermont Neither Senator is currently a cosponsor
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet Sen. Cory Gardner	Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts Sen. Jerry Moran	Montana Sen. John Tester Sen. Steve Daines	Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe Sen. James Lankford	Virginia Sen. Mark Warner Sen. Tim Kaine
Connecticut Se. Christopher Murphy	Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul	Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer	Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden	Washington Neither Senator is currently a cosponsor
Delaware Sen. Christopher Coons	Louisiana Sen. David Vitter Sen. Bill Cassidy	Nevada Sen. Dean Heller	Pennsylvania Sen. Robert Casey, Jr. Sen. Pat Toomey	West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin Sen. Shelley Moore Capito
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio	Maine Sen. Angus King	New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen	Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse	Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson Sen. Tammy Baldwin
Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson Sen. David Perdue	Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin	New Jersey Neither Senator is currently a cosponsor	South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham Sen. Tim Scott	Wyoming Sen. John Barasso Sen. Michael Enzi