A US Senate committee on 14 April approved a bill that would require the Federal Aviation Administration revise regulations related to the mental health of pilots and air traffic controllers.
The Mental Health in Aviation Act of 2025, passed by the Senate Commerce Committee, seeks to tackle longstanding and widely recognised issues related to the agency’s methods for addressing mental health issues and the use by pilots and controllers of psychotropic medications.
For years, critics have said the FAA’s strict policies encourage pilots and controllers to lie about mental health conditions or not to seek treatment due to fear they will lose their licenses.
The newly passed bill would give the FAA two years to implement recommendations issued in 2024 by the agency’s Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances rulemaking committee.
That report urged the FAA to “create a non-punitive pathway” by which pilots can disclose mental health conditions, and to stop requiring pilots and controllers, while undergoing aeromedical screening, to report having participated in psychotherapy.
A pilot “desiring to engage in talk therapy to manage a life event… could be deterred from doing so due to the requirement to report it to the FAA”, that report said.
The 2024 report also called on the FAA to consider allowing pilots and controllers, while on duty, to use “acceptable medications” for ADHD.
The Senate bill would also direct the FAA to provide enhanced mental health training to its medical examiners, “to ensure such personnel have requisite knowledge and the ability to appropriately evaluate individuals”.
Additionally, it would require the FAA to conduct ongoing “public information” campaigns aimed at “destigmatising” pilots and controllers who seek mental health care. The campaigns should also seek to improve trust between the FAA and both pilots and air traffic controllers.
The bill has support from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The measure “would require the FAA to revise regulations to encourage voluntary disclosure of mental health conditions and treatment, regularly review the special issuance process to expand treatment options and approved medications, and provide funding to reduce the special-issuance backlog,” the group says.
Special issuances are approvals that allow pilots to continue flying despite not meeting baseline medical requirements.
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