The new political landscape in the nation’s capital poses enormous threats to the contract aviation maintenance industry and your company.

In recent years, opponents of repair stations have convinced lawmakers that the work you do threatens the safety and security of civil aviation. Those negative messages have taken hold in Washington, DC, particularly with Democratic members of Congress.

Pending legislation will make it harder for U.S. air carriers to use overseas repair stations and will likely result in retaliation by foreign governments that will make it more difficult – and expensive – for U.S. companies to serve international customers. The harmful legislation has support among key Democratic leaders, and President-elect Barack Obama is a primary co-sponsor of the bill. (For more detail on these legislative efforts, please visit www.arsa.org/KnowTheIssues).

On Nov. 6, ARSA submitted a Petition for Exemption from Title 14 CFR part 121, appendices I & J, Anti-Drug and Alcohol (D&A) Misuse Prevention Programs, to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on behalf of its members. The petition stems from an Airworthiness Directive (AD 93-05-16) that requires operators or maintenance facilities to send components back to a manufacturer for performance of an alteration.

The manufacturer listed in the AD, however, does not have its own D&A program as it is only permitted to rebuild or alter its own articles. The Association points out that since the FAA has not issued definitive guidance on whether alterations are considered "safety-sensitive functions", covered employers are forced to follow an AD that forces them into a possible regulatory violation for contracting work to a facility whose workers are not covered by a DOT-sanctioned program.

In a Nov. 4 letter, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting-Administrator Robert Sturgell responded to Representative John Mica’s (R-FL-7) concerns regarding the handling of Pre-application Statements of Intent (PASI) under Notice 8900.47. The Notice was issued in response to the freeze placed on initial certification of foreign repair stations because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) failed to issue a final rule on part 145 repair station security by a congressionally mandated Aug. 3, 2008 deadline.

Under Notice 8900.47, applications received prior to August 3 were to be evaluated in accordance with Order 8900.92 and FAA management would assess agency resources and determine the status. If the status was "green" prior to Aug. 3, the application will be considered to be "in process" and the normal certification process would follow. The result was that many repair stations that filed a PASI before the Aug. 3 deadline were not given "green" status due to international field office resource constraints and therefore were not deemed to be "in process." These repair stations would be forced to wait until the freeze was lifted to apply for initial certification.