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The following are among the hot-topic issues on the Association’s U.S. legislative agenda that the union’s elected leaders, members, and staff are working to address in 2026 with the 119th Congress and the White House.
For Canadian hot-topic issues, read “From Atop Parliament Hill.”
Safe Skies Act Introduced in House
The Safe Skies Act of 2026 (H.R. 7526) was introduced earlier this year in the House of Representatives by Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) with original bipartisan cosponsors Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), John Garamendi (D-CA), and Don Bacon (R-NE). The legislation directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to apply the same science-based flightcrew member duty and rest requirements to all-cargo operations that already apply to passenger operations. The bill would mandate that the DOT modify the final rule from 2012 that carved out all-cargo operations, a loophole that ALPA has fought to close for more than a decade. The Association has long called for science-based flight- and duty-time regulations for all Part 121 operations and welcomed the introduction of this legislation in the House.
The Safe Skies Act is currently pending in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Additional congressional cosponsors are necessary before the bill moves further in the process. ALPA expects the introduction of a companion bill in the Senate this year.
Closing the Charter Loophole
ALPA continues to advocate for two bills that would require parity for Part 135 and Part 380 operators with scheduled airline operations under Part 121, effectively closing the charter loophole. With a recent uptick in air operators effectively running scheduled service for ticketed passengers under looser safety and security rules than those required for commercial airline operations, this legislation is more important than ever.
The Safer Skies Act (H.R. 2353) was introduced by Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) on March 26, 2025, with 33 original bipartisan cosponsors and is currently pending in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The bill requires the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to hold Part 135 and Part 380 air carriers that operate like scheduled airlines to the same security standards as any other scheduled passenger carrier in the United States. This legislation requires the TSA to update its security screening requirements for Part 135 or Part 380 operators that conduct common-carriage passenger-carrying operations, offer individual seats in advance, provide publicly available schedules, and have seating for more than nine passengers. H.R. 2353 ensures that any operators under a Part 135 and Part 380 designation are held to the same security standards as any other scheduled commercial airline.
“Allowing Part 135 and Part 380 operators to take advantage of less-strict security protocols introduces risk into our aviation system. Passengers deserve the same high level of aviation security regardless of their departure point and destination,” said Capt. Jason Ambrosi, ALPA’s president, when the legislation was introduced.
The Safe Flights for Passengers and Flight Crews Act (H.R. 7501) was introduced in the House in February by Reps. Tim Kennedy (D-NY) and Langworthy. Both Kennedy and Langworthy represent communities near Buffalo, New York, where the Colgan Air accident occurred in 2009, and the legislation was introduced on the anniversary of that tragedy. The bill closes the public charter loophole by requiring all scheduled charter operations that use aircraft with more than nine seats to meet the same safety requirements as Part 121 operators, including pilot training and qualification standards, flight- and duty-time regulations, maintenance schedules, and operational oversight. The Safe Flights for Passengers and Flight Crews Act will strengthen aviation safety and ensure passengers receive the same level of safety as other scheduled commercial flights.
When the bill was introduced, ALPA’s president remarked, “No airline operator should be able to exploit a regulatory gap to avoid the standards that govern scheduled commercial service. Yet today, some carriers are running what amount to scheduled airline flights that operate in the same airspace, serve the same passengers, and fly from largely the same airports without meeting the highest level of aviation safety standards. This bill ensures a level playing field and, more importantly, ensures that every passenger can board a flight with confidence that the same rigorous safety standards apply, no matter the carrier or the destination.”
The Safe Flights for Passengers and Flight Crews Act has been referred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. ALPA is working to garner support for both bills.
ALPA Urges Passage of Senate-Approved Mental Health in Aviation Act
The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously reported out the Mental Health in Aviation Act (S. 3257) on April 14, 2026, readying the bill for a vote by the full Senate. ALPA applauded the action, which seeks to modernize the FAA’s approach to mental health for pilots and air traffic controllers and improve the medical certification process for pilots.
This legislation, introduced by Sens. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), improves aviation safety by encouraging both pilots and air traffic controllers to seek mental-health care, if needed, while reducing the stigma associated with mental-health treatment.
Under current FAA regulations, pilots and air traffic controllers are required to obtain and maintain FAA medical certification, which requires the disclosure of medical treatment, including for mental and behavioral health. Once disclosed, pilots with minor or well-managed conditions can face prolonged uncertainty and bureaucratic delays as they work through the existing processes that allow for treatment and the safe return to the flight deck.
In 2023, the FAA convened the Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) to assess barriers that discourage pilots and controllers from acknowledging, seeking care and treatment, and reporting mental-health concerns and to develop and implement policy and protocol recommendations. The ARC delivered 24 targeted recommendations aimed at removing obstacles to mental-health care while upholding the highest aviation safety standards.
The Mental Health in Aviation Act builds on these recommendations and requires the FAA to
- Modernize mental-health guidance regulations for pilots and air traffic controllers to encourage the early disclosure and treatment of mental-health conditions and the reduction of mental-health stigma in the aviation community.
- Regularly review the FAA’s special issuance medical certification process, appropriate mental-health treatments and medication use, and overall mental-health training for aviation medical examiners.
- Allocate $15 million annually (FY2026–FY2029) to the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine to expand and train additional aviation medical examiners, including specialists, to improve the efficiency of the FAA’s special issuance medical certification process.
- Authorize $1.5 million annually (FY2026–FY2029) for a public information campaign to encourage pilots and air traffic controllers to seek mental-health treatment, broaden awareness of supportive services, and improve trust between the FAA and pilots and air traffic controllers.
“It’s imperative that our pilots and air traffic controllers have access to the resources they need to maintain their mental health,” said Hoeven. “The Mental Health in Aviation Act seeks to address mental-health issues, promote early intervention, provide additional resources to the FAA’s Office of Aerospace Medicine, and support the well-being of aviation professionals and the overall safety of our skies.”
“Pilots and air traffic controllers often operate under immense amounts of stress—pursuing mental-health care shouldn’t be a career-ending decision,” Duckworth remarked. “The fear and hesitancy around reporting mental-health conditions and accessing care is hurting our pilots and isn’t making our skies any safer. Reforms are critically needed.”
S. 3257 is the Senate companion to Reps. Sean Casten (D-IL) and Pete Stauber’s (R-MN) bill, H.R. 2591, which passed the House unanimously by voice vote on Sept. 8, 2025. ALPA is advocating for swift passage of the Senate bill so that a final bill can be signed into law this year.
Congress Introduces No Tax on Overtime for All Workers Act
ALPA has spent the last year working with Congress to ensure that pilots receive a tax deduction related to qualified overtime pay. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), a large tax package passed in 2025, created a temporary federal tax deduction for qualified overtime earned in the tax years 2025 through 2028. OBBBA provisions allow workers to deduct the premium portion of overtime (i.e., the extra “half” of time-and-a-half pay) for those who work more than 40 hours in a single workweek and qualify under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime pay standards.
Airline pilots and workers in similar interstate commerce-based industries, like transportation, are exempt from the FLSA overtime compensation rules. Pilots are also limited to working no more than 32 hours during any seven consecutive days by federal aviation regulations—further complicating their claim to federal overtime. During OBBBA discussions, ALPA worked with Republican members of Congress to try and create a fix for these overtime complications, but the final OBBBA was based on the FLSA standards because that’s the prevailing means for calculating federal overtime.
Since the passage of the OBBBA, ALPA has worked on a bipartisan basis to correct the overtime tax deduction. Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Emilia Sykes (D-OH) and Sens. Jim Justice (R-WV) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced the No Tax on Overtime for All Workers Act (H.R. 5475 and S. 4310). The bill would allow pilots to deduct premium pay beyond scheduled hours of duty or for hours on duty over a monthly maximum. Essentially, an “overtime-like” system has been created to enable pilots to claim this deduction. The deduction itself is an above-the-line deduction—it’s available to all pilots whether or not they choose to itemize—and a tax filer can deduct up to $12,500 as an individual or $25,000 for a household. The deduction phases out based on earnings and is reduced by $100 for each $1,000 by which a single filer’s income exceeds $150,000 or $300,000 for a joint filer.
Passing the No Tax on Overtime for All Workers Act will likely require a major tax bill to move. Congress has discussed attempting to move another large budget bill considered under special parliamentary rules called “reconciliation.” This process would allow Congress to move a bill without the typical 60-vote threshold required by Senate rules. However, there are considerable political obstacles to moving such a package during an election year. And if such a package were to move through Congress, there would be many competing policy items seeking refuge in a tax bill.
ALPA’s Government Affairs Department has worked with the tax-writing committees and the sponsors of the No Tax on Overtime for All Worker Act to ensure that the legislation’s provisions could be included and that there’s substantial support behind such a bill. Enactment of this legislation will heavily depend on the overall political viability of a potentially controversial large tax bill, how much money members of Congress are willing to spend, and how they’d offset that spending. ALPA will continue to push for tax equity for pilots and for enactment of the bill.
ATC Modernization Update
The United States has the busiest, most complex airspace in the world but features an aging and increasingly strained air traffic control (ATC) system. For the past two decades, the FAA has struggled to modernize outdated technology and hire enough air traffic controllers to staff the system. At the same time, an unpredictable federal budget process—including several government shutdowns—compounded these longstanding challenges.
Numerous high-profile ATC failures, including the 2023 notice to airmen outage that resulted in a nationwide ground stop and, more recently, communications and radar blackouts at Newark Liberty International Airport, laid bare the scope and extent of the problem. Controllers are also increasingly stretched thin, as nearly half are required to work mandatory overtime—10 hours per day, six days per week. The situation is simply unsustainable.
ALPA and other aviation stakeholders have consistently urged the FAA and Congress to take decisive action to address these problems, which, if left unaddressed, will continue to degrade the margins of safety that pilots, airspace users, and the flying public depend upon. As part of this effort, ALPA serves as a founding member of the Modern Skies Coalition, an umbrella organization established last year that represents more than 50 major aviation stakeholders with the goal of using the united voice of both industry and labor groups to support ATC modernization.
These efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Last year, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA leaders unveiled plans for a “Brand New Air Traffic Control System,” and Congress provided an initial one-time “down payment” of $12.5 billion for ATC modernization. In addition, congressional appropriators have increased the FAA’s annual budget for ATC sustainment and upgrades from about $3 billion per year to $4 billion.
As a result, the DOT and the FAA have made some decisive early progress: the replacement of more than half of old copper wiring with new fiber, moving old analog radios and voice switches to digital systems, the accelerated deployment of electronic flight strips and surface awareness tracking technology at more airports, and the replacement of aging radar systems. However, more resources—at least $20 billion according to DOT and FAA officials—are needed to finish the job. This includes additional technology upgrades as well as refurbishment or replacement of aging ATC facilities, many of which are well past their useful lifespan.
The FAA has also announced ambitious plans to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled air traffic management tool, the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routing, and Trajectories initiative, to guide airline scheduling decisions, anticipate problems like congestion or weather, and enable preemptive routing or schedule adjustments to avoid delays. While the stated goal is to keep humans in the loop, reduce controller workload, and serve as an advisory tool for decision-making (rather than a replacement for human judgment), more details are needed. ALPA is urging the FAA to consult with pilots, controllers, and the frontline aviation workforce during the planning process to ensure that any new technology or procedures include the perspective of those who’ll be most affected by them.
In late June, the White House made a formal request to Congress asking for supplemental funding for the military, aid to farmers, and several other priorities, including increased flexibility for how the FAA can spend the existing $12.5 billion already provided by Congress for ATC upgrades. The Association and the Modern Skies Coalition are working to build bipartisan political support for additional ATC modernization funding. It’s possible that Congress could provide these resources as part of a larger supplemental funding package in the coming months.
ALPA will continue working with likeminded stakeholders to encourage Congress to complete ATC modernization while boosting controller staffing and avoiding damaging government shutdowns.
Appropriations Update
Each year, Congress is responsible for funding hundreds of federal departments, agencies, and programs, as well as conducting oversight of the Executive Branch as it carries out the day-to-day work of the government. The annual appropriations process, managed by the influential House and Senate Appropriations Committees, is where this primarily occurs. The “power of the purse” is something that these committees take very seriously as they draft their annual funding bills and the accompanying reports that provide detailed, line-by-line funding levels and instructions for agency operations.
Typically, the U.S. president submits a proposed budget early in the calendar year, and the Appropriations Committees move quickly to hold hearings with department heads and agency officials to get more detailed testimony, ask questions, and seek justification for proposed spending decisions. The committees then draft the 12 annual funding bills, which are considered in each subcommittee, then the full committee, and then possibly the House and Senate floors. The House and Senate must negotiate or “conference” to resolve any differences and then pass the finalized appropriations bills, either individually or in groups (sometimes called an “omnibus” or “minibus” package) by September 30, the beginning of the federal fiscal year. Congress routinely misses this deadline, necessitating a “Continuing Resolution” (CR) to keep federal agencies temporarily funded. As recently seen, larger political disagreements have led to lapses in funding, resulting in the government shutdown.
Currently, the House Appropriations Committee has passed all 12 annual funding bills in committee and passed two bills on the House floor, with more in the queue. The Senate, which requires higher levels of bipartisan cooperation, has struggled to agree to overall funding levels for each of the bills, resulting in deadlock at the committee level for now. No Senate appropriations bills have been publicly released. It’s highly likely another CR will be needed at the end of September, and any action on final spending bills will probably be delayed past the upcoming midterm elections.
Despite increasing acrimony in the once-staid and generally bipartisan appropriations process, more times than not, annual funding bills are eventually enacted into law. The appropriations process remains an important way for ALPA to influence both spending and policy decisions relevant to its members.
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations bill funds the DOT and the FAA. ALPA once again secured language in the House’s pending FY2027 THUD bill that ensures any funds provided to the FAA “shall not support reductions in flight deck crew in commercial operations as provided under 14 CFR Part 121.” This effort complements ongoing ALPA advocacy to reject several pro-automation proposals from private companies seeking to influence the FAA certification and safety review process via the THUD bill.
In addition, the Association successfully advocated for increased funding for the FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine with instructions to “expedite and reduce the existing backlog of pilot and air traffic controller medical certifications, including special issuances, special considerations, and medication approvals” along with related legislative language to waive the salary cap for aviation medical professionals employed by the Office of Aerospace Medicine, a longstanding impediment to recruiting and retaining necessary staff with adequate medical credentials.
The THUD bill also includes dedicated funding to continue the Human Intervention Motivation Study (HIMS) program to ensure pilots struggling with substance abuse have a pathway to get help—and possibly return to the flight deck—with the support of peers and experienced medical professionals. ALPA continues to work with the Senate Appropriations Committee on all these priorities.
Department of Homeland Security
The Homeland Security appropriations bill has jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program. The FFDO program was created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and serves as a critical last line of defense for aviation security, with specially trained pilots permitted to carry firearms onto the flight deck as a deterrent to air piracy or terrorism. ALPA has built bipartisan support for the program over many years of advocacy, but the program is facing both training backlogs and infrastructure constraints. The Association’s Aviation Security Group has been engaging with FFDO officials to develop plans for a new Initial Training Program facility.
The Association is working to educate congressional offices and the Appropriations Committees about these issues and the need for increased FFDO funding. The pending House FY2027 DHS bill includes flat funding for the FFDO program, approximately $27 million, consistent with the TSA’s budget request. However, the committee noted that it “strongly supports the additional aviation security provided by FFDOs,” and ALPA will continue to work with key members of the House and Senate to secure the necessary additional funding.
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
The Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS-ED) appropriations bill funds a large array of departments and agencies, including the National Mediation Board (NMB). The NMB remains a crucial tool for U.S. ALPA pilots during contract negotiations. Last year, the Association worked with Congress to reject the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the NMB, which is currently experiencing a shortage of mediators and has faced stagnant funding for several years. This year, ALPA is working to secure increased funding for the NMB to improve mediation capacity as many of the Association’s U.S. pilot groups gear up for contract negotiations later this year and next year.
The pending House FY27 LHHS-ED bill rejected the administration’s proposed cut, keeping NMB funding flat at $15.113 million. This is a positive change from last year, when the House initially agreed to the funding cut. ALPA will continue working with supportive Senate offices to seek an increase for NMB funding.
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