Third Class Medical Reform

[BKlott]

Yesterday evening the topic of Third Class Medical Reform came up again on the Cessna 172 Club Forum. One of the other members had commented that they felt the FAA had been purposely delaying progress on this issue and that even if the pending legislation passes Congress and gets signed into law that the FAA will delay it's implementation as long as possible. That may well turn out to be the case; however, I elected to share the following information as it is pertinent to this topic. Here is my post from the 172 Club forum and I have attached the letters from both the FAA and the DOT for public record as well. I have also shared this information with the folks on Beech Talk and the Super Viking Forum as well.

 

I want to share something with you that I have known about and have been working on since last year but have not made public until now. There is a very real possibility that the FAA is not the real villain behind the delay in medical reform. I believe that it may well be the Department of Transportation. Let me tell you why.

Remember that the FAA had reportedly submitted to the DOT a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Third Class Medical Reform? They did. It was 68 pages in length.

Remember how we waited and waited and waited for the DOT to take action on the NPRM, which they were supposed to do within 90 days, but we never did hear that they took any action at all?

Well, it turns out that the DOT sent a response to the FAA that was 22 pages in length. That response along with the original NPRM has never been made public.

I know these things because I attempted to obtain a copy of the NPRM and documentation as to what action(s), if any, the DOT had taken on the NPRM by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act with the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation.

The FAA responded to my request with a letter dated August 27, 2015. Their letter provided the details that I mentioned above.

Do you remember Michael Huerta's comments at Airventure 2015 when he spoke about resistance to the medical reform in the Executive Branch of our government? You can look it up on the EAA website and read it yourself but the part that stood out to me was when he said these words:

"I'm not saying that it's right or rational, but that's the reality."

That struck me as being a strange comment for the Administrator to make if he was opposed (as some of us thought) to Third Class Medical Reform.

I also had phoned AOPA and spoke with their Government Affairs people and they firmly believed that the FAA was "on board" with the reform and had made an honest effort to get it done.

My personal belief, given the circumstances as well as the documentation that I have received, is that the FAA is not opposed to Third Class Medical Reform and may not be an obstacle to implementing it IF it is approved through legislation.

Let me share one more interesting piece of information with you. While the FAA responded promptly to my FOIA request, albeit denying the release of the requested documents under Exemption 5 of the FOIA, the DOT itself did not respond until just recently, May 27, 2016, to be exact.

The DOT response states, in part, "No action has been taken on this NPRM."

They also declined my request citing Exemption 5 of the FOIA.

How the DOT can provide a 22 page response to the FAA on their NPRM and then tell the American public that "No action has been taken on this NPRM" defies logic and is downright dishonest.

You and each and every one of the other nearly 600,000 American Citizens that hold a Pilot Certificate has a right to know that. In a greater sense, each and every American has a right to know how blatantly dishonest the Department of Transportation has been in their handling of this matter.

If you want to know who the real villain is in this situation, in my opinion, it is not the FAA, IT IS THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION.

IMG_20160531_0002_NEW.pdf

2015-332_Lott signed letter-signed.pdf

[carusoam]

Nice letter writing skills, BK!

Best regards,

-a-

[RangerJim]

A cogent analysis.  Very strong work by BK.

[1964-M20E]

So are you  implying the hold up is elsewhere in the gov't?

 

 

 

[steingar]

2 hours ago, 1964-M20E said:

So are you  implying the hold up is elsewhere in the gov't?

He is rather  boldly saying that the hold is in the Department of Transportation, which we knew all along.  The FAA put the ball in their court long ago.  That the DOT could send a 22 page response back to the FAA and then claim to have taken no action is laughable at best.  I wish someone had the cash to take this to court.  I'd love to know what they said.

Thesis going to have to wait for Congress, boys.  And we all know how long that can take...