ADVOCATING FOR YOU By Cade Clark, John Shea, and Katia Veraza
New Year, New Opportunities A new year promises further gains for the vertical flight industry.
S
INCE THE PREVIOUS EDITION OF ROTOR, the HAI Government Affairs team has steadily increased its efforts at all levels to keep your
rotors turning. In addition to tracking the 2022 US mid- term elections and their effect on the vertical flight industry, we’re promoting HAI members’ interests in the FAA reauthorization bill and in aviation workforce devel- opment, enhancing our plans to represent the indus- try regionally and locally, and furthering HAI’s initiatives for improving relations between the rotorcraft community and our neighbors on the ground.
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2022 US Election Outcomes By now, the US midterm election dust has settled and the political landscape for 2023–24 has been established. Republicans took control of the House of Representa tives after gaining 10 seats; the balance of power in the lower chamber now sits at 222 Republicans to 213 Democrats. In the Senate, Demo-
Legislative Action Center
rotor.org/lac
crats expanded their majority by one seat after flipping Pennsylvania and holding on to Arizona, Nevada, and
Georgia. The balance of power in the upper chamber now sits at 51 Democrats to 49 Republicans. Four states changed party control in the governor’s mansion—one for Republicans and three for Democrats. Republicans now hold 26 of the 50 governor seats. Additionally, members in 88 of the country’s 99 state legislative chambers were up for election across 46 states. Democrats gained control of four chambers— the Michigan House and Senate, Minnesota Senate, and Pennsylvania House—bringing their total to 40, and a bipartisan coalition gained control of the Alaska State Senate. With the loss of those five chambers,
8 ROTOR DECEMBER 2022
Republicans now have control of 56 state legislative chambers.
While the outcome of the 2022 midterms was far
from the “red wave” many had predicted, it certainly changed the Washington dynamic. With Republicans controlling the House, GOP leadership will set the floor agenda and make committee assignments. The 118th Congress is off to a historic start. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is now the longest-serving Senate leader in history. Meanwhile, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.-8) has been named House minority leader. Jeffries, the first Black to lead a party in Congress, replaces Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11), who led her cau- cus for the last 20 years. For the first time in a century, the Speaker of the
House was not elected in a single ballot. After enduring a four days-long revolt from a bloc of 20 far-right conser- vatives, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.-20) officially secured the speaker’s gavel on the 15th ballot. To win over his detractors, Speaker McCarthy made major con- cessions in the House rules package, offered seats on the powerful Rules Committee, and agreed to several other prominent committee assignments. The last time there were more than nine ballots was
in 1856, and it took 2 months and 133 votes to elect a leader. We’re relieved that wasn’t the case in 2023— Congress has important work to do, including reauthoriz- ing the FAA! However, all the Speaker drama has certainly led to a slow start for the 118th Congress. While many committee chair roles have been decided at the time of this writing, many are yet to be named. Here is what we know: Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.-06) will be the next chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, while Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.-02) will become the next ranking member. Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.-06) will be the next chair of the Aviation Subcommittee. Democrats retained control of the Senate, but several
committee leadership posts will take place in the new Congress. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) will leave his
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