On 28 Feb 2004 14:52:22 GMT, Stan Gosnell
wrote in Message-Id: :

The FAA is required by law to consider all comments. They may not accept
all of them, but they are required to consider and provide an answer to all
of them.

It looks like the FAA may be forced to hold PUBLIC hearings instead of
soliciting comments over the internet:

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AOPA ePilot Volume 6, Issue 11 March 12, 2004
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CONGRESSMAN CALLS FOR PUBLIC HEARINGS ON AIR TOUR RULE
The chairman of a House small business panel has called a hearing
to hear face-to-face from pilots--something the FAA has
steadfastly refused to do--who will be hurt by the FAA's proposed
charity/sightseeing rule. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), an AOPA
member, plans to explore the damaging effects of the FAA's
proposal to require small sightseeing operations to meet the more
stringent requirements of large air-tour operators. It would
also more than double the hours pilots would need to have
before they could fly passengers on charity fund raising flights.
Graves was the first member of Congress to publicly add his voice
to AOPA's call for the FAA to hold public meetings on the proposed
rule. See AOPA Online:
http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2004/04-1-133x.html