Senate unanimously passes pilot mental health legislation

The U.S. Senate passed the John A. Hauser Mental Health in Aviation Act by unanimous vote on Thursday. The bill would reshape how the FAA handles pilot and air traffic controller mental health and medical certification, and it now moves closer to becoming law. The House had already acted on comparable legislation, and a Senate committee had previously approved the bill.

The bill directs the FAA to update its mental health guidance, encourage pilots and controllers to disclose and seek treatment for mental health conditions earlier, and periodically review its Mental Health Special Issuance process. It also calls for more training for aviation medical examiners and specialists and requires the agency to run a public information campaign intended to lower barriers to seeking care.

Under the measure, the FAA would have 18 months to revise Part 67 medical-certification regulations and related guidance. Reviews of the special issuance process would examine whether additional medications and evidence-based treatments could be accepted, and whether specially trained examiners could issue more certificates without forwarding cases to the FAA for further review.

The legislation would authorize as much as $15 million a year through fiscal 2028 to recruit and train more aviation medical examiners, including psychiatrists, expand the agency's medical-review capacity and cut the special issuance backlog. Within two years, the FAA would also have to adopt relevant recommendations from its 2024 rulemaking committee on mental health and aviation medical clearances, or tell Congress why specific recommendations were not adopted.

The FAA has separately revised some certification procedures, including granting aviation medical examiners more authority over certain mental health renewals.