(Bloomberg) -- U.S. flight attendants would be guaranteed an additional hour of rest between shifts under a proposal released Thursday by aviation regulators. 

The action designed to lessen fatigue among airline cabin crew members was ordered by Congress, and the Federal Aviation Administration had been under growing criticism for missing a Nov. 4, 2018, deadline to adopt the changes.  

Most of the delay occurred under the Trump administration, which was hostile to the flight attendant unions that had sought the change and skeptical of new regulations generally. 

The FAA’s proposal would in most cases extend the required rest period to 10 hours from the existing nine hours under current rules, according to FAA documents. It wouldn’t change the existing rules limiting a flight attendant’s work day to no more than 14 hours. 

The FAA in 2011 adopted significant changes in passenger-airline pilot rest rules designed to reduce the chances that fatigue would cause safety issues, but there were no such changes for cargo pilots and flight attendants.  

The FAA announcement comes on the same day as agency Administrator Steve Dickson is set to appear before the aviation panel of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, on Wednesday called the FAA’s failure to meet the deadline on the rule “completely unacceptable.” 

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