On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization, which passed a preliminary vote, would include funding for pilot training programs.
The FAA Reauthorization passed in an 81-10 vote in the U.S. Senate on Thursday. The bill now needs to be completed by the House and Senate this week before the existing bill runs out later this month. Hoeven said he worked to include the University of North Dakota’s (UND) role in aviation research, development, training and operations.
Hoeven told students at UND that he had worked to include funding for pilot training programs through Fiscal Year (FY) 2028, to improve the hiring and staffing of air traffic controllers, and to update the minimum hiring target for new air traffic controllers (ATC). Additionally, Hoeven’s work will maintain UND as the first university in the country were students in the ATC program can moved directly into the workforce after graduation.
“We rely on skilled aviators on a daily basis to safely and efficiently move people and goods across the country,” he said. “It makes sense to leverage the professionalism, training and skill of our veterans, combined with the expertise of UND’s flight school, to meet the demand for new commercial pilots… We’ve now secured my American Aviator Act in the FAA reauthorization, which provides a long-term extension of the program to maintain and expand this opportunity for veterans. At the same time, we’re working to strengthen opportunities for UND’s ATC training program, allowing students to bypass the academy in Oklahoma, directly enter the workforce and meet the demand for qualified air traffic controllers.”