Mental Health in Aviation Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bipartisan Mental Health in Aviation Act, which I introduced with my friend, Mr. Stauber, from Minnesota.

I thank Congressman Stauber as well as Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Larsen for all of their support and close collaboration on this bill.

Today, pilots and air traffic controllers who seek mental health care are unfairly penalized by a system that perpetuates a culture of silence. Current regulations mandate that if they seek care, then they are immediately grounded for a minimum of 6 months, and then they are still faced with delays, confusion, and overbroad regulation in the process of returning to work.

This often leaves the folks who are tasked with keeping our skies safe with an absolutely terrible choice, Mr. Speaker: Get help but put your career and your paycheck on hold, or keep your career on track and just hope you will get better.

It doesn't make our skies safer, but it does lead to horrible and avoidable tragedies.

It hit home for me when a Chicago family told me about their son who was studying to become a pilot, and he took his own life. He knew that he needed help, but he didn't want to be grounded. That young man would still be here today but for these regulations that gave him fear when he needed care.

Since working on this bill, I have heard too many nearly identical stories from pilots, students studying to be pilots, and air traffic controllers, their coworkers, and their families.

As many have mentioned, in December 2023, the FAA finally recognized the need to reform those current policies and established a committee to identify barriers to mental health care for aviators to present ways for the FAA to address those challenges. Their recommendations included limiting disclosure requirements for low-risk psychotherapy and expanding the use of existing peer-support programs, but it didn't mandate those changes, nor did it provide necessary implementation resources.

This bill finishes that job by requiring the FAA to implement those changes within 2 years, to regularly review and improve processes related to mental health, and to ensure the FAA can successfully implement and publicize those rules. This will destigmatize mental health care to make our pilots healthier and our skies safer.

I am proud that this bipartisan legislation is widely supported in Congress and also by the aviation community, airlines, pilot unions, and air traffic controllers.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support it.

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