CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. -- The February 2009 Flight 3407 crash in Clarence Center took the lives of 49 passengers and one person on the ground.

Their family members, like John Kausner, said all these years later, their work isn't done.

"Fourteen years we've been trudging back to D.C. to keep in place what was told to us by congressmen and their staff was a no-brainer," Kausner said.

These families have been to the nation's capital dozens of times, first to lobby for the passage of the Airline Safety Act of 2010 and then to make sure those new requirements remain in place.

"Yes, we were emotional but we looked and said with our passion, with our loss, said what can we do to fix things and we fixed them and we haven't had an airline crash since," Kausner said.

This week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is holding hearings and will discuss the FAA reauthorization bill. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-NY-26, said the current authorization expires at the end of September.

"There is an effort to undermine the very provisions that these families and all of us fought for over the past 15 years," Higgins said.

Specifically, Higgins and Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-NY-23, both who plan to testify, are concerned about regional airlines pushing to get around the requirement all pilots log 1,500 flying hours before they are eligible to fly a commercial plane. The airlines said those rules have contributed to pilot shortages.

SkyWest, an airline that serves millions of North American travelers monthly, has applied to the Department of Transportation to use only 30 seats on otherwise larger flights in order to operate under a charter certification that would require a first officer have as few as 500 flying hours.

The congressmen sent a letter Monday to U.S. Secretary Pete Buttigieg, urging him to deny the application.

"No business decision should ever come before public safety. Period. End of story. Every industry has labor problems. Every industry has a pinch on their bottom line," Langworthy said.

The families and lawmakers said they also object to suggestions from regional airlines to allow pilots to satisfy training hours on flight simulators.

"(Do) you want your 16-year-old taking a simulator of a NASCAR driver and go out and drive on our ice and snow? We know it's not the same and it's the same with airline pilots," Kausner said.

On Wednesday, these family members will testify and take to the halls of Congress again, hoping to make sure the legacy of Flight 3407 remains safer skies.