Letter to Vice President Mike Pence, Robert Redfield, Dir. of the CDC, and Anthony Fauci, Dir. of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - Cantwell Calls on White House to Establish Federal COVID-19 Guidelines for Aviation Industry

Letter

Dear Vice President Pence, Dr. Redfield, and Dr. Fauci:

I write to you in your capacities as members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force asking
that federal guidelines be established for the aviation sector and the traveling public. Last week
the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing about the
importance of the aviation industry and what it will take to keep the traveling public safe from
the coronavirus. At the hearing we heard from the airlines, airports, aerospace sector, as well as
Dr. Hilary Godwin, the Dean of Public Health at the University of Washington. To date, airlines,
airports, and federal agencies have implemented inconsistent measures to thwart the spread of
the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) through the aviation system.

To instill public confidence and mitigate a resurgence of the coronavirus from increased travel,
we need clear, uniform, national guidelines for airlines and airports based on the best information
from our public health experts. If those guidelines are not followed, we need oversight from the
federal agencies to protect the traveling public and the workers throughout the aviation system.

At the Senate Commerce Committee hearing about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
the aviation industry, Dr. Hilary Godwin testified to the importance of having national guidelines
and that no one measure in and of itself will solve this problem, so we need to weave a net of
protections to have the biggest impact. According to Dr. Godwin, this net could include the
following measures:
 Contact and travel information gathering to aid in contact tracing;
 Communicating to passengers, workers, and the public about good hygiene;
 Screening individuals for symptoms prior to travel;
 Minimizing contact between individuals at screening points and during flights;
 Wearing masks and gloves when appropriate;
 Frequently cleaning high touch surfaces;
 Requiring HEPA filters on airplanes;
 Making hand sanitizer readily available;
 Requiring passenger, and airport and airline worker attestation to being asymptomatic;
and
 COVID-19 testing at airport entry points, once there is widespread availability of
inexpensive point-of-care tests.

While not all measures are appropriate for all circumstances, the more measures weaved to form
the net will decrease the risk to workers and the public. In addition, if those measures are not
consistent throughout the system they will be less effective. For example, most airlines have
announced they will require passengers to wear masks and the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) has announced it will require its employees at airport screening points to
wear masks. Some airports have started to require passengers to wear masks throughout airports
to ensure they do not increase risk of transmission, but that is not yet widespread. When a wellrespected scientist like Dr. Godwin says that we need uniform national standards to avoid a
patchwork of regulations that will put holes in the net, the federal government should listen.

One key measure that is challenging but necessary to implement in the aviation system is contact
tracing. The federal government, through the Public Health Service Act, has the responsibility
for preventing the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases from foreign
countries into the United States and from one state or U.S. possession to another. However, this
system is not set up to detect people that may have been exposed to a fast-moving illness like
COVID-19. Accordingly, the federal government must move quickly to develop a protocol to
collect contact information for passengers to aid public health authorities' contact tracing efforts.

Finally, on March 10, 2020, after witnesses from the Department of Transportation, Customs and
Border Protection, and the CDC testified at a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing, I wrote
to you to clarify which federal agency is responsible for issuing guidance or mandates for aircraft
cleaning requirements and for ensuring that the guidance is followed. I have not yet received a
response to that letter. What remains clear is that airlines and airports need further guidance and
clarity on where in the federal government to go to get that information.

Again, the federal government must issue clear and uniform guidelines to our airlines and the
traveling public. These must include contact tracing, cleaning, social distancing, personal
protective equipment, and other measures, based on CDC and other scientific-based guidance to
ensure the safety of workers and passengers. The aviation industry is extremely important to a
fully functioning economy and the federal government should be able to balance the need for it
to operate efficiently and protect workers and passengers.

Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this request.

Sincerely,

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