Business View Magazine | March 2018

23 “We have an office inD.C.and regional managers around the country.The advocacygroup inD. C.is about a dozen folks whoworkon government affairs.We have seven regional offices that workwith the state houses on sales tax issues,and regulatory issues that are pertinent by state.” According to Baker,a recent exercise in federal advocacyproved successful whenAOPAturned out its members in force to oppose congressional attempts to privatize the nation’s air trafficcontrol system. “ATCprivatization has been on the radar screen for a number of years and it popped up last summer,led by HouseTransportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman,Bill Shuster,”Baker recounts.“We rallied our members and fought hard against what we sawas a grab bya part of the airlines tomanage air traffic control.We had over 200,000 of our members write or call their representatives and senators.And it worked. In late February,Shuster pulled the bill fromconsider- ation because of lackof support in theHouse.” “Another bigwin is called BasicMed,”Baker contin- ues,“whichwas implemented last May.It expedites theway inwhich private pilots can get their medical compliance done.It’s much simpler and it lowers the cost for folks whomayhave had a special issuance-a medication or surgery in the past.That was very suc- cessful–we’venowgot 29,000 pilots using that.” Of course,AOPAis not always in an adversarial po- sition vis à vis the federal government.In fact,it works closelywith a number of federal agencies,the FAA being number one.“We workwith themon regulatory issues,licensing issues,on standards as they relate to newequipment on older aircraft,air space issues.We have averyproductive relationship,there,”Baker re- lates.“We workwith theNTSB (National Transportation SafetyBoard) on howwe canmake general aviation