As of July 1, 2012, the HAI Communications Department is accepting requests for news conference slots at HELI-EXPO 2013, to be held March 4-7, 2013, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Confirmed HELI-EXPO exhibitors may submit requests using the News Conference Request form found under the Exhibitor drop-down menu on the left side of the HELI-EXPO web page.

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The Highway Transportation Bill conference report has cleared both chambers of Congress by wide margins and now heads to President Obama’s desk for signature. Congress hopes to have the bill to the White House before the current funding authorization expires at midnight on Saturday, but given the complexity of the bill, has passed a seven-day extension in case they miss the deadline. “We could not have asked for a better outcome,” said HAI President Matt Zuccaro. “In the end, common sense prevailed and lawmakers listened.”

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European Union (EU) leaders have reached an agreement use the continent’s bailout funds to recapitalize struggling banks, allowing the euro zone leaders to help banks without adding directly to countries’ sovereign debt. That was an especially important issue for Spain and Italy, given the high interest rates on their debt.

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The U.S. Senate has passed the Pilot's Bill of Rights (S.1335) sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and a bipartisan group of 65 cosponsors. The legislation contains a number of provisions that would make the FAA and NTSB appeals process’ more transparent.

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The National Transportation Safety Board will host a two-day forum July 17-18, 2012, to examine ways to improve the likelihood of rescue following a general aviation accident. The forum will look at ways to aid searchers and improve the survival chances for downed pilots and passengers.

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 Military & Aerospace Electronics - NASA is turning to industry for help overhauling the avionics in its RASCAL (Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory) Black Hawk helicopter. The JUH-60 uses a "20-year-old experimental flight-control computer designed originally to help develop and test military helicopter flight-control concepts."

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 With the wildfire season in full swing, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service have issued an Interagency Aviation Technical Bulletin regarding the use of heliwells to refill helicopters being used for aerial firefighting. The technical bulletin deals with the hazard of snorkels used in the refilling operation snagging on the portable sites.

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The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate finalized a compromise late in the evening on June 27 regarding the surface transportation reauthorization bill, which now also includes provisions to extend lowered student loan interest rates. The agreement came just days before federal funding for transportation programs is set to expire, and ahead of a hike in interest rates on federal loans for college students.

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The U.S. House of Representatives’ Oversight and Government Reform Committee has sent the 2012 Government Spending Accountability Act (GSA Act) to the full House. The legislation adds new restrictions to federal agencies that wish to send employees to conferences. It was developed in April following the discovery of wasteful spending by the Government Services Administration on travel.

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Members of the U.S. Congress, along with the Obama administration, are showing little appetite to extend the payroll-tax holiday beyond the end of 2012. Such an extension would add another $95 billion to the federal deficit in fiscal 2013, according to calculations by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

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