House Human Services committee hears bill to create North Dakota Center for Aerospace Medicine

The House Human Services Committee opened a hearing on House Bill 1612 to establish the North Dakota Center for Aerospace Medicine and asked the clerk to read the title. Representative Landon Bail of Grand Forks introduced the bill and said the proposal would be housed at the University of North Dakota under the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences and work in coordination with the North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Bail said the bill as amended would carry a one-time appropriation of $500,000, reduced from an initial $2 million, with the goal of seeking the remainder through a separate bill (House Bill 1221).

The bill’s sponsors and subject-matter witnesses told the committee the proposal responds to mental-health barriers unique to aviation: pilots and other aviation professionals can lose their FAA medical certificates after seeking mental health care, which discourages many from getting help. “Mental health is health care,” Representative Landon Bail said, adding the center would “advance aeromedical research, facilitate aviation research across the state of North Dakota and provide assistance to flight students and…