10.05.18 – APFA National President Bassani Praises the Signing of Five-Year FAA Reauthorization Bill by President Trump

 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants  

APFA National President Bassani Praises the Signing of Five-Year FAA Reauthorization Bill by President Trump

 
Euless, TX (Oct. 5, 2018)—The FAA Reauthorization Bill was signed into law today by President Trump. The bipartisan bill had previously passed both the House and the Senate by wide margins. The bill authorizes the FAA for a five year period and includes a number of provisions that affect Flight Attendants. APFA National President Lori Bassani thanked the President and singled out Chairman Bill Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio for their sustained bipartisan work on getting the bill passed. “Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio worked hard, particularly over the past year, to get this important legislation passed. They deserve credit in this time of hyper-partisanship for putting the needs of the workers, the industry and the consumers first,” Bassani stated.

The Bill contains a number of provisions important to Flight Attendants including:

• Requiring the FAA to review cabin evacuation assumptions to ensure everyone can safely evacuate an airliner in an emergency within the required timeframe.
• Extending training requirements related to recognizing signs of human trafficking.
• Confirming no knives on planes.
• Prohibiting use of cell phones for inflight calls on commercial aircraft.
• Improving minimum rest and duty rules for Flight Attendants.
• Increasing civil penalties for interference with cabin and flight crew.
• Addressing sexual misconduct in passenger aviation by establishing a national task force to review current practices, protocols and requirements for air carriers’ responses to sexual misconduct allegations as well as increasing the civil penalty for interfering with cabin or flight crew.

“This bill is a promising first step for our crews and the flying public and it is up to us to ensure that its provisions are faithfully and fully implemented,” Bassani concluded.