House aviation caucus hits membership milestone

   The chairs of the U.S. House General Aviation Caucus, Sam Graves and John Barrow, announced Friday the group’s membership now includes more than half of the House of Representatives.
   Two hundred and twenty-three congressmen have joined the group, passing the midpoint split of 218 members. The General Aviation Caucus works to highlight the role of the industry, which includes non-scheduled, non-military aviation.
   “Crossing the 218 mark is a great victory for general aviation,” Graves said in a statement. “Education is key to our efforts to highlight the everyday concerns of America’s pilots, so having the majority of the House participating in the caucus is important.”
   Barrow called the development a milestone for the industry and pointed out the group is now the largest bi-partisan assembly in Congress.
   The new development gained praise from a number of industry groups including the National Air Transportation Association.
   “The National Air Transportation Association continues to be impressed with the efforts of the House General Aviation Caucus and the bipartisan leadership of Representative Sam Graves and Representative John Barrow,” the group’s president and chief executive officer, Thomas Hendricks, said. “NATA has also encouraged its member companies across the country to reach out to their respective congressional representatives to join the caucus. We are so pleased to see that their efforts have paid off as well as the growing influence that the caucus brings inside the halls of Congress to advocate for our industry.”