Letter to Director Orszag

Letter

Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced that he has written a personal letter to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Peter Orszag, urging to him to drop OMB's objection to recently proposed airline safety guidelines that would dramatically stiffen current laws regarding pilot fatigue. Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began to formulate new fatigue guidelines that would increase rest time for commercial pilots, but the OMB has held up implementation of these new protections because of objections from the commercial airline industry about cost. The FAA pushed for stricter guidelines and enforcement of pilot fatigue standards in response to the tragic crash of Colgan Air flight 3407, which a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation revealed was a contributing cause of the crash.

"Delaying these regulations is pennywise and pound foolish, and the accountants at the OMB should look at the bigger picture on this one," said Schumer. "We must do everything we can to prevent another tragedy like the 3407 crash, and all signs have pointed to pilot fatigue being one of the major causes, along with improper training. These rules must be put in place -- and fast."

In 1989 the NTSB began urging regulators at the FAA to increase standards for pilot fatigue in order to ensure that passengers were not risk of a crash due to overworked pilots. Since that time, any proposed increase in pilot fatigue standards has been met with stiff resistance, yet increasing incidents and mounting evidence about the dangers of weary pilots has pushed the issue to forefront. In many ways, the crash of Colgan Air flight 3407 served as a tragic tipping point that made the need for increased safety standards in the airline industry all the more clear. Since the fatal crash, the FAA has proposed new guidelines that would increase mandated rest time between flights and require a certain amount of rest for each pilot during a given month, potentially up to 100 hours. The new plans being brought forward would end longstanding exemptions that allow smaller, regional carriers to exceed pilot flight times by as much as 20% and require additional rest for pilots flying nonstop flights.

The OMB, the agency that oversees the entire federal budget, is also tasked with developing cost-benefit analyses for federal proposals, including new regulations that judge the monetary impact that policies have on the federal deficit and businesses. The use of cost-benefit analyses have risen dramatically since the 1980s and allow the federal government to carefully consider the economic impact of any proposal. While performing cost-benefit analysis certainly has a role to play in policymaking, these analyses often exaggerate the cost and underestimate the benefits. For instance, a cost-benefit analysis of new FAA regulations on pilot fatigue may not fully take into account the economic harm that would be caused by a crash due to pilot fatigue or the added benefits to the airline industry that could occur if passengers traveled with increased confidence in their safety. In this instance, the plan being formulated by the FAA has been stalled by the OMB over worries from the commercial air industry looking to avoid increased safety measures that might add costs. The full text of Schumer's letter can be seen below:

Dear Director Orszag:

I write to respectfully request that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) work to resolve concerns with the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) proposed fatigue rules for pilots. I understand that OMB has expressed apprehension concerning the potential costs of these rules, but I strongly feel that this safety issue is of the utmost importance to the future of aviation safety in the United States, and I hope you will work quickly to approve FAA's proposal.

FAA began crafting pilot fatigue rules following the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407, which crashed near Buffalo, New York and claimed fifty lives. From that incident, FAA and Congress learned that the airline industry is evolving, and there is a boon in small, regional airlines like Colgan Air, Inc.

Unfortunately these regional airlines are often not held to the same safety standards that larger commercial carriers are subjected to, and there was evidence that the co-pilot may have been fatigued, which in turn affected her performance. The National Transportation Safety Board ultimately ruled that the plane's crash was attributable almost entirely to human error, so I am sure you understand the timeliness of FAA's proposed rules to regulate the amount of time pilots and co-pilots must rest between aircraft operations.

I appreciate that OMB must carefully weigh the costs and benefits of proposed rulemakings, but in the case of pilot fatigue, we cannot afford to delay. The future of air travel safety in our country will largely be shaped by the tragic lessons that were learned from Flight 3407's crash, and I appreciate your cooperation in allowing rulemakings to proceed in an expeditious manner.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact my Washington, DC office.

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