Orval Fairbairn wrote:

According to AOPA and EAA e-newsletters, a NY Congressman, aptly named
Weiner, proposes Dracinian measures against GA:

Update off AOPA's web site --

AOPA fights to stop Weiner bill in its tracks

AOPA is fighting in the halls of Congress to make sure that the anti-general aviation
bill (H.R. 5035) introduced by New York Democratic Congressman Anthony D. Weiner
doesn't even get a toehold.

"We're using our professional Washington, D.C.-based legislative staff and our
personal, ongoing relationships with powerful members of Congress to drive a stake
through the heart of this ill-conceived bill," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "The
congressmen closest to aviation issues know exactly how AOPA members feel about this
legislation."

The first opportunity for the ill-advised security legislation to advance would be
this Wednesday when the House considers the "mark-up" of legislation implementing
recommendations from the 9/11 Commission. (A mark-up is the meeting of a
congressional committee to review and amend a bill before sending it to the full
House or Senate for consideration.)

Weiner could try to offer his bill as an amendment to that legislation, but AOPA has
lobbied hard — and will continue to do so — to prevent that.

On Sept. 8, the same day Weiner released his bill, an AOPA legislative affairs staff
member met with Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), a member of the House aviation subcommittee,
to express opposition to the bill. Graves, a pilot and AOPA member, confirmed he
would oppose the bill and made sure AOPA's staff had a copy of it, even before it was
publicly available.

AOPA also contacted subcommittee members Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) and Leonard Boswell
(D-Iowa), both pilots and AOPA members.

AOPA talked to the staff of aviation subcommittee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and
Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.); with chairman of the full committee, Don Young
(R-Alaska); and with James Oberstar (D-Minn.), the ranking member. Any aviation
legislation ultimately has to be approved by the Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee, chaired by Young.

"It was very clear from all of our contacts that there is significant opposition to
this bill within the committees," said Jon Hixson, AOPA vice president of Legislative
Affairs. With that kind of opposition, it would be very difficult for the bill to
advance.

But AOPA is keeping the pressure on. AOPA met with Weiner's staff on Sept. 9,
outlining the association's opposition to the bill and providing information on the
steps already being taken to secure general aviation, including AOPA's Airport Watch
program.

And AOPA is already talking to key contacts in the Senate, in an attempt to forestall
the introduction of a similar bill in that body.

"Weiner's bill would have to clear a lot of hurdles before it would even be
considered by the House," said Boyer. "There are significant checks and balances to a
piece of legislation like this — the subcommittee, full committee, full House — then
the same over in the Senate.

"With our long experience in lobbying Congress, we know when and how to target
politicians to express our position," Boyer added. "Rarely has AOPA ever been placed
in a position to bring in the full power of our 400,000 members to stop a bill on
either the House or Senate floor because we work at being effective well prior to
that point."

Weiner's bill would require the Transportation Security Administration to set up
airline-style passenger screening at every landing facility in the United States
(some 19,500) to screen every passenger boarding every general aviation aircraft
(more than 211,000) for every flight (more than 43 million per year). That means the
TSA would have to conduct an additional 108 million passenger screenings at more than
19,000 facilities where TSA today doesn't currently have any officers. (Data from
AOPA's 2004 Fact Card.)

But Weiner's bill doesn't stop there. It would also require every pilot of every
flight to remain "in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration regardless of
the altitude of such aircraft." That would increase the workload of air traffic
controllers by at least nine times, requiring the agency to significantly increase
the size of the workforce and to install new communications and radar equipment to
cover all the areas of the country.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.