Comedian Nathan Fielder's HBO series *The Rehearsal* has contributed to the Senate passing two bipartisan bills focused on pilots' mental health and aviation safety. The second season of the show highlighted the stigma surrounding mental health issues among aviators through a series of rehearsed scenarios, culminating in Fielder piloting a Boeing 737 passenger jet. According to a former National Transportation Safety Board member, the show's advocacy appears to have helped push legislation that had been stalled in the House for years.

The two bills—the John A. Hauser Mental Health in Aviation Act and the Aviation Medication Transparency Act—were introduced by Republican Senator John Hoeven and Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth. The first aims to tackle longstanding stigma by increasing funding for aeromedical examiners and mental health training; it was named after John A. Hauser, a student pilot who took his own life in 2021 and whose family pleaded for changes to the aeromedical system. The second bill seeks to clarify which medications aviators and their medical providers can use, addressing a significant gap in transparency within the aviation industry.