Last week, Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), ranking Democrat on the House Aviation Subcommittee and sponsor of H.R. 4755, announced circulation of a discharge petition (H. Res. 814)a as a means of bringing H.R. 4755 to the House floor to ensure timely consideration of the bill. In order to reach the House floor, 218 members of Congress must sign the discharge petition and then any signatory can bring the bill to the floor. The discharge petition became available for signature yesterday, and already 101 members of Congress have signed on.

Currently, the FAA has declared an impasse in its negotiations with NATCA, which according to the FAA’s interpretation of the law, gives Congress 60 days to act. The FAA submitted its proposal to Congress on April 5. Therefore, if Congress fails to take action, the FAA can implement its contract offer on or after June 5. As you know, PASS remains at impasse with four of five bargaining units and recently decided to accept the agency’s contract proposal for PASS’s remaining bargaining unit. Based on the agency’s recent actions during its impasse with NATCA, we expect the FAA to submit our impasses to Congress in the very near future. The only way to stop the FAA from imposing new contracts on PASS members is to get help from Congress.

URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED!

It is critical that all PASS members immediately contact their member of Congress in the House who has cosponsored H.R. 4755 and urge them to sign the discharge petition. If you do not have the contact information for your member of Congress, please call the House switchboard at 202-225-3121 and they can connect you to their office.

To see if your member of Congress has cosponsored H.R. 4755, check: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR04755:@@@P. Currently, H.R. 4755 has 262 cosponsors.

To view cosponsors of H.R. 4755 that have already signed on to the discharge petition, check: http://clerk.house.gov/109/lrc/pd/Petitions/Dis13.htm. If your member of Congress has already signed the discharge petition, be sure to send a note thanking them for their support.