On February 17, the US Senate passed S. 223, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act, sponsored by Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. Additional help in shepherding the\u00a0bill came from\u00a0Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, and\u00a0Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma was instrumental in including\u00a0an\u00a0amendment to the Bill that provides an exemption for aeromodeling activity \u201cconducted in accordance with a community-based set of safety guidelines within the programming of a nationwide community-based organization.\u201d We would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to Senators Rockefeller, Inhofe and Hutchison for their support and efforts on our behalf.<\/p>\n
This was a huge step forward in AMA\u2019s efforts to protect model aviation from unnecessary and potentially debilitating federal regulation.<\/p>\n
Although this was a significant accomplishment, we are far from being out of the woods on this issue. A similar amendment needs to be filed and passed by the House of Representatives before going to conference committee. AMA and our political liaison will be working diligently on accomplishing this in the next couple of weeks, with the hopes of having the amendment included in the bill when it leaves Congress.<\/p>\n
What can you do to help? AMA has initiated a Congressional Awareness Campaign, aimed at educating Congress on the social, cultural and educational attributes of model aviation and making it aware of our concerns. In the suggested letter to Congress on our website<\/a> is a paragraph advising that \u201cWe are pleased the U.S. Senate has adopted an amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill exempting the operation of model airplanes from unnecessary\u00a0federal regulations.\u201d And, \u201cWe urge you to ensure that this amendment is included in the legislation when it is sent to the Executive branch for signature.\u201d<\/p>\n