In the last 25 years we have witnessed a transition from American carriers accomplishing most of their aircraft maintenance in-house to a complex system of farming out the majority of heavy work to repair stations, some on foreign soil.  Foreign repair station growth has been prolific and unfortunate as well.  Not only has this meant a loss of high paying jobs at the various carriers, but it has also brought about serious concerns regarding safety, security, and quality of maintenance performed at foreign repair stations.

For almost a decade, AMFA has been at the forefront of the fight to address these concerns.  As a matter of fact, this has been our biggest legislative priority.  We have regularly met with legislators and regulators to achieve restrictions on maintenance performed at foreign repair stations.  Ultimately, AMFA wants any safety-sensitive work done on a US aircraft to be accomplished by a FAA licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic, otherwise called an Aircraft Maintenance Technician; however, we must be pragmatic and seek solutions that can be achieved and further act as building blocks towards our goal.

Sadly, much of the work over the last decade towards this end seemed fruitless.  After meetings and phone calls with those that could help, but would not for various reasons, some political some personal, one could not help but be frustrated at the lack of progress towards this end.  It was not just AMFA though, as the government itself questioned the FAA and their oversight of foreign repair stations.  We continued to work hard asking for hearings and posing questions on the record. 

In late 2014, the NEC met and seriously debated our legislative priorities and our financial support of them.  In the end, it was determined that the upcoming FAA Reauthorization bill, a bill that funds the FAA for a particular period of time, was an opportunity to affect positive change that AMFA couldn’t pass up.  But in order to do so, we needed to find a lobbying firm that had better access and could produce results.  We set out on a search for a firm that could do so and stay within our budget ? a very difficult task indeed.

After going through one firm, we selected Commonwealth Strategic Partners, a newly started but well-connected firm, who worked with us on a plan to achieve success.  They strongly advised that we needed a bipartisan legislative solution, which can be a problem for labor; however, as AMFA is an independent apolitical Association, we accept support for the craft from both sides of the aisle.  Plan “A” was to get language in the base bill of the House of Representatives and the Senate with restrictions on foreign repair stations.  Plan “B” was to produce a bipartisan amendment with that language.  Both of these plans were aggressive, and frankly audacious.  Although one might consider this issue to be one of common sense, we have found that politics has a tendency to remove that factor from consideration in some instances.

So our efforts began in earnest around March of 2015.  There were over 100 meetings held between legislators or their staffs, our lobbying team, and National officers.  On the House side, we worked very closely with the House Transportation Committee staff in advance of the bill being written to attain a successful plan “A.”  We also reached out to Representative Dan Lipinski (D-IL), who had written an amendment in the 2011 version of the FAA Reauthorization bill regarding foreign repair stations that was defeated.  Simultaneously, we found common ground with Representative Ryan Costello (R-PA), who agreed to present an amendment if we couldn’t get language in the base bill.  Mr. Lipinski offered to sign the amendment again, and we were able to achieve a third signer, Representative Lou Barletta (R-PA), who had actually voted against the amendment in 2011.

On the Senate side, we met with the majority and minority staffs of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee as well as the staff of all 24 Senators on the committee.  Once the language was included in the House bill, we re-met with the majority and minority staffs of the full committee as well as staff of 15/24 Senators on the committee.  We were informed Senator McCaskill (D-MO) had requested the language in the bill.  Language identical to the House language was included in the Senate bill, which passed committee on March 16, 2016. 

In both the House and Senate sides, we were able to achieve our plan “A,” which is a huge success for AMFA.  Representative Costello even thanked AMFA on the record for bringing this to his attention: view the link here. Other organizations may try to take credit, yet let the record show that AMFA was the group getting things done in Washington, D.C.

So what did AMFA actually accomplish?  With our pressure and advocating for the craft at the highest levels of government, we were able to achieve language in both base bills that force drug testing for employees at foreign repair stations, as well as background checks similar to those that we are subjected to.  We believe that this makes air travel safer for the American flying public.  Although this is not everything that we wanted as it relates to restrictions on foreign repair stations, it is a steadfast move in a positive direction.  We will continue to strive towards more legislation that keeps our flying public safe and quality jobs in the United States of America.  AMFA is smartly playing the long game and is building relationships that will carry our craft into the next generation.

There may be some who try to denigrate this accomplishment by indicating that more should have been done.  They, unfortunately, are hugely misinformed and obviously ignorant of the political machine that exists today.  I cannot in such a short space properly explain how much of a heavy lift this accomplishment is for AMFA.  For those of you that aren’t aware, AMFA does not give money to politicians, and that is the greatest of the three primary ways to get things done in politics ? the two others being the ability to deliver votes, or finding an altruistic official to champion the principle.

Suffice it to say that AMFA is hitting way above our weight class.  Each of you should be proud of the accomplishments for our craft.  It is because of you and your support that we were able to make this happen and we need your support to continue.  It’s not done yet, as we await the House and Senate getting together on one bill to send to the President.  Finally, I would like to thank in the House: Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Subcommittee Chairman Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) and Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA), Congressman Ryan Costello (R-PA), Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-IL), and Congressman Lou Barletta (R-PA); in the Senate, Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL), Subcommittee Chairman Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Claire McCaskill (D-MO).  Without the support of these elected officials, we would not have achieved our goal.

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