Nathan Fielder Made Pilots’ Mental Health a Focus of ‘The Rehearsal.’ Now 2 Bills Addressing It Have Passed the Senate
· Thought Catalog
Updated 1 minute ago, September 29, 2026
On September 24, the Senate unanimously passed 2 bills addressing pilots’ mental health, an issue Nathan Fielder explored in season 2 of HBO’s The Rehearsal. The bills haven’t become law. The House still has to act on the Senate legislation.
The John A. Hauser Mental Health in Aviation Act would require the FAA to update its mental health rules, review how it grants special medical clearance and fund more aviation medical examiners. The Aviation Medication Transparency Act would require the agency to make its guidance on permitted medications and drugs that bar certification or flying publicly available. Senators John Hoeven and Tammy Duckworth introduced both bills in November 2025.
Fielder’s season aired from April to May 2025. It showed him confronting an FAA medical form that asks about mental disorders, including depression and anxiety. He spent about 2 years getting licensed and flew a Boeing 737 carrying actors in the finale.
The legislation was already in motion before the season aired: a House mental health bill had been introduced in 2024, and the House passed a related bill in September 2025. Fielder said aviation adviser John Goglia later told him young congressional staffers had watched the show and thought it had helped move the issue along. Fielder told Deadline, “Anyway, I don’t know if it did anything, but it was nice to hear.”
The Senate mental health bill bears the name of John Hauser, a 19-year-old aviation student who died by suicide in a training plane in North Dakota in 2021. His father said John left a letter asking his parents to “change the FAA rules so that other young pilots don’t have to go through what I went through.”
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