Mental Health in Aviation Act of 2025

This bill aims to make it easier and safer for people in aviation to get mental health care. It tells the FAA to update its medical rules within two years to encourage seeking help and honest disclosure of mental health conditions or symptoms. The FAA must also follow through on expert recommendations, including those from an aviation mental health rulemaking committee, and act on mental-health findings from an FAA task group’s report within set deadlines. Each year, the FAA has to review and improve the “special issuance” process that lets pilots and air traffic controllers fly with certain treated conditions—expanding safe medication options, boosting examiner training, and potentially letting examiners handle more decisions to speed things up.

The bill sets aside money to reduce backlogs and improve services. It directs $13.74 million per year from 2026 to 2028 to recruit and train more aviation medical examiners and to clear pending medical cases. It also funds a public information campaign—$1.5 million per year from 2026 to 2028—to fight stigma, raise awareness of support, and build trust with pilots and controllers; the FAA must report on that campaign after one year.

• Who is affected: Pilots, air traffic controllers, and aviation medical examiners.
• What changes: Updated medical rules that encourage care and disclosure; yearly improvements to special medical approvals; more approved medications; better examiner training; possible delegation to examiners; hiring more examiners; and a public education campaign.
• When: FAA rule updates within two years; act on task group recommendations within 180 days of its report; funding and the public campaign run 2026–2028; campaign report due one year after the campaign starts.