HR2591-119

What This Bill Does

The House-engrossed Mental Health in Aviation Act of 2025 requires the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to update regulations as appropriate within two years to encourage aviation personnel to seek mental-health care and disclose conditions or symptoms. It combines certification-process review, aviation and medical consultation, targeted FAA resource allocations, and public education. The reported, referred-to-Senate and engrossed texts are substantively identical after normalizing extraction differences. This assessment describes the proposal, not the current availability of any medication or an assurance that a particular pilot is medically eligible.

The House text sets aside $13.74 million annually in fiscal years 2026-2028 for examiner recruitment, training, authority delegation, oversight and special-issuance backlog work, plus $1.5 million annually for a public information campaign. These are allocations from amounts made available under 49 U.S.C. 106(k)(1), totaling $45.72 million over three years, not new standalone appropriations. The introduced version instead authorized the same annual amounts for four years, 2026-2029, totaling $60.96 million subject to appropriations.

Who Benefits and How

Pilots, air traffic controllers and prospective aviation workers may benefit from less stigma, better information about treatment and medical certification, more examiners and improved processing of special-issuance requests. The Office of Aerospace Medicine receives reserved capacity funding to address its review backlog. Aviation medical examiners, including Human Intervention Motivation Study examiners and psychiatrists, gain recruitment and training opportunities and may receive additional delegated authority if FAA determines it appropriate. The bill does not automatically approve a medication, waive fitness requirements or guarantee issuance of a medical certificate.

Air traffic controller bargaining representatives, organizations representing airline-pilot bargaining representatives, and aviation medical examiners receive explicit consultation roles. The House broadens pilot representation beyond the introduced reference to the principal organization representing the largest bargaining representative. Passengers could benefit indirectly from personnel obtaining suitable care and safer disclosure pathways, but the text does not establish a quantified safety improvement. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee receive explanations when recommendations are not implemented.

Who Bears the Burden and How

FAA must revise regulations, conduct annual reviews, train and oversee examiners, implement recommendations subject to the bill's qualifications, consult workforce and medical representatives and report to Congress. Its mental-health special-issuance review covers regulations, policies, orders and guidance and addresses medications that can safely be prescribed, examiner knowledge and training, possible delegation and process improvements. Reserved funding reduces FAA's discretion to use those amounts for other activities within the existing funding authority, without establishing an increase in total federal appropriations. Examiners may face additional training and oversight duties alongside expanded professional opportunities.

Two distinct recommendation tracks apply. Section 2 requires action within 180 days after submission of the report under section 411(f) of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, with a congressional justification for any mental-health recommendation not implemented. That is a report-relative deadline, not 180 days after this bill's enactment. Section 5 separately requires implementation, to the greatest extent practicable, of the April 1, 2024 Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances Aviation Rulemaking Committee recommendations within two years, consultation, and explanations for nonimplementation. The House adds practicability and justification language to the introduced unqualified implementation duty. These are not a blanket exemption from existing medical safety standards.

Key Provisions

• Section 2 requires appropriate regulation updates within two years and adds National Transportation Safety Board recommendation review and current clinical research, diagnostic manuals and protocols to the statutory task-group report.
• Section 2 embeds consultation with controller bargaining representatives, pilot-representative organizations and aviation medical examiners and creates a separate 180-day post-report implementation-or-explanation track for mental-health recommendations under the 2024 Act.
• Section 3 requires annual special-issuance review across regulations, policies, orders and guidance; medication approval must be consistent with safe prescribing and examiner delegation remains conditional on FAA judgment.
• Section 4 requires FAA to reserve $13.74 million per year for fiscal years 2026-2028, totaling $41.22 million, for examiner capacity, oversight and Office of Aerospace Medicine backlog reduction, with discretion for related activities.
• Section 5 addresses the April 1, 2024 committee report, including its themes of disclosure pathways, evidence-based screening, peer support, examiner training and information systems. FAA must implement to the greatest extent practicable within two years and explain recommendations it does not implement.
• Section 6 requires FAA to reserve $1.5 million per year for fiscal years 2026-2028, totaling $4.5 million, for mental-health education and destigmatization. Its campaign report is due within one year after the campaign is created, not one year after enactment.
• Section 7 identifies the congressional recipients and incorporates the special-issuance meaning from 14 C.F.R. 67.401, a discretionary medical-certification pathway with safety-related conditions rather than automatic certification.