Call to Action February 28, 2024

It’s time for all CPA members and general aviation supporters to take action to influence the outcome of HB24-1235, "Reduce Aviation Impacts on Communities."  The Colorado House bill has its first and most important hearing tentatively scheduled March 6 afternoon before the Transportation, Housing & Local Government Committee. Some committee members will decide their position before the hearing and some at the hearing. Here are four important things you can do:

1. Email or call the members of the committee now, well before the hearing
2. Attend the committee hearing (in person or by Zoom)
3. Volunteer to testify for 2 minutes at the hearing (in person or by Zoom)
4. Share this call to action

As originally introduced, the bill would be bad not just for Colorado aviation, but as a precedent nationwide. CPA is supporting CABA in its efforts to amend the bill, and we believe those efforts are working, but we won’t know how well until at least March 1. Since the bill has a good chance of passing, it’s important we continue to work cooperatively toward the best language possible. That is why our position is that the bill must be Amended, and we recommend not opposing the bill (yet).

That said, the committee needs to see and hear that aviation has many supporters, more than the opponents complaining about lead and noise. Committee staff are counting. If our many voices are heard, we will have more leverage in obtaining a more acceptable bill. 

• Tell them you support aviation and support the incentives in the bill to help airports and aircraft owners handle the transition to unleaded avgas. 
• Tell them other sections of the bill as introduced would be disastrous for aviation and not effective at controlling noise or lead. 
• Tell them the aviation community is already working toward a safe transition to unleaded fuels. 
• Tell them to consider CABA’s recommended amendments to the bill, (Click here to download), and to accept amendments offered by the sponsors which solve some problematic aspects of the bill.

Generally these messages are counted not read, so keep it brief and make sure the subject line is something like “Amend HB24-1235”.  We recommend you send your email to yourself and bcc all of the following members of the Transportation committee:

(create a new email, copy and paste the following email addresses into the "bcc" field in your email app)

meg.froelich.house@coleg.gov; 
mandy.lindsay.house@coleg.gov; 
andrew.boesenecker.house@coleg.gov; 
marc.catlin.house@coleg.gov; 
lisa.frizell.house@coleg.gov; 
Iman.Jodeh.house@coleg.gov; 
tisha.mauro.house@coleg.gov; 
jennifer.parenti.house@coleg.gov; 
alex.valdez.house@coleg.gov; stephanie.vigil.house@coleg.gov; 
don.wilson.house@coleg.gov

For more details on these committee chairs, please visit: Transportation Committee

Details on attendance at the committee hearing will be sent out by next Monday night March 4.  If you would like to testify, either in person or by zoom, please let us know at legislative@coloradopilots.org.  We want to coordinate those testifying so that the committee hears a powerful message. Be aware that we ask all those testifying to write and practice their testimony so that it is 2 minutes, polished and persuasive. By next Monday we should have a better idea about amendments we need to urge the committee to support, and any remaining provisions that are still bad for aviation to focus on.

Thanks for your efforts.

CPA’s Legislative Committee