'Demilitarization' provision removed from defense bill
AOPA Legislative Affairs staff has confirmed with congressional staff that legislation that could have led to the destruction of historic "warbirds" and other vintage aircraft has been deleted from the Department of Defense Reauthorization bill ( H.R.4205). Congress is expected to approve the final legislation as early as next Tuesday. The "demilitarization" provision, opposed by AOPA, was intended to address a coding problem with surplus military equipment. Because of that problem, some sensitive military technology was inadvertently sold to the public. However, the administration's legislative "fix" for that problem was written so broadly that it could have forced the destruction of classic military aircraft now flying in the general aviation fleet.
00-4-038x
October 6, 2000
