In a letter to leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, 29 organizations urged that legislation to create a new aviation maintenance workforce development program be included the Senate’s FAA reauthorization package.
The workforce bill, S. 2506, was introduced in March by a bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.). It would create a new grant program administered by the FAA to attract and train the next generation of aviation technical workers. Twenty-one senators have cosponsored S. 2506. A parallel House bill (H.R. 5701) introduced by Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), has 16 cosponsors.
The July 20 letter was coordinated by ARSA and signed by 28 allied organizations representing maintainers, airlines, manufacturers, business and general aviation, schools, labor and communities with significant aviation sectors. According to responses to the association’s 2018 member survey, difficulty finding technical talent is one of the biggest strategic threats facing the maintenance industry.
FAA legislation is expected on the Senate floor in the coming weeks and ARSA and its allies are mounting a full court press to get S. 2506 into the bill.
