Not trying to beat a dead horse but the user fees are alive and well. A couple of senators on the Commerce committee tried to get this amendment to the FAA funding bill that would strip the $25.00 "long words" from the funding bill. In this committee 8 dems and 5 repubs voted to keep the fees in the original bill.
This Association could add it's voice to the "Alphabet" groups that are opposed to "user fees" but we have nowhere near the clout as an organization like AOPA. Individual letters and phone calls do more to at least alert senators and reps to what the citizens would like to see happen.
(According to the AOPA, their members logged over 350000 calls! Those brilliant pols chose to ignore the citizens in favor of the (airline) corporations.)
The only problem is, and look at the now approaching immigration reform, they really dont give a damn what the citizens want. Corporations call for and get the favor of every piece of legislation they want.
There were some very strong words in the "comments" section of the Houston Chron story about the sneaky way the senators met to hammer out this immigration giveaway. There is going to be a protest at the Texas capital June 16. Watch and see how big it gets (and possibly, how quickly it is quashed by the authorities on pretense of "keeping the peace"). Many comments include strong language that indicates the bums should be given the BOOT! General aviation is a miniscule segment of the population and to be "squeaky" enough to get any attention, we are going to have to scream like hell!!
Talk is cheap and action is sparse. I am sad to say that most voters just don't care enough to change the way things are heading. Media tells us what is important. The sound bytes and photo ops for pols get big corporate donations in their re-election coffers, and when they say that the population doesn't care about these little behind the scenes deals, many voters believe it is just OK. Look at the price of gasoline. It has gone through the roof but many Media sources indicate it isn't bothering the public very much! I'll let you in on a little secret! I traveled to Kansas City last weekend. I had to cough up $85.00 to fill my tank! That bothers the hell out of me! Someone recently asked WHERE IS THE RAGE? I don't know but I feel all hell is about to break loose.
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YELLL YELLLL YELLLLLLLLLL TO ANY ONE IN RANGE
Now we can make all the illegal immigrants legal, bypassing the rigors that most of our ancestors had to go through to become US citizens 
We need to get our act together also and vote these folks out if they aren't doing what we send them to Washington to do. Guess that's enough ranting for now, but I sure am getting tired of the crap 
