Originally Posted by
OpieTaylor
Why is it likely?
It’s hasn’t been popular enough to pass as a stand alone bill.
It hasn’t been placed into the senate version of the FAA reauthorization act.
The secretary of the DOT is publicly against it.
The CEO of United airlines is publicly unenthusiastic about it being any benefit to the public.
The President is claiming to be the most pro labor union President of all time and the labor unions are against it.
It can’t be added as an amendment without 60 votes.
You said yourself the committee responsible for adding into final language is facing a mutiny and has chosen to just close shop instead of loose control. It would seem the ATP issue closing the committee down would defacto prevent age 67 from being added.
It seems the most likely trajectory is Senate passes FAA reauthorization without it being included.
It would seem the bills go to conference committee with the WH and Senate withholding support of age 67.
So question is, how committed is the House?
Its possible it didn’t sway the house vote at all and just reflects good lobbying to a committee that placed the language in the House bill.
I don't know where you came up with it not being able to be added without 60 votes; there are only 9 memebers on the subcommittee so it only requires 5 votes to be added in a markup session (which needs to happen prior to leaving subcommittee).
1) the FAA Reauthorization Act cannot leave subcommittee without a majority vote in favor of it. Please count the votes as it stands.
2) There's a huge amount of funding tied to the FAA Reauthorization Act. Senior Dems will not allow this bill to be stuck in subcommittee forever.
3) Even if the Senate version doesn't include 67, House members are likely to demand it be including during the reconciliation process.
4) When the age changed to 65, it firmly opened the door to further age increases.
5) Congress sees a pilot shortage and sees age 67 as a way to help mitigate that shortage.
6) Having pilots work longer means that they will continue to contribute to the Social Security Trust Fund instead of drawing payments from it. This is actually a bigger issue than most others here.
Our opinions on this matter don't count for anything. If you want to try to move the needle, contact your representatives and tell them you oppose this change. And make sure you get a lot of non pilot voters to contact their representatives to oppose the change. And send lots of money to your representative to influence them.
You need to play the DC game. No discussion on this forum is going to make any difference in the outcome.