House and Senate Committee leaders recently announced a bipartisan final agreement had been reached on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) legislation providing reforms and transforming federal disaster programs.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was also reauthorized for three years while the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was reauthorized for four years.
“This important legislation provides the FAA with the long-term funding it needs to carry out its safety mission, and guarantees that the United States will continue to lead the world in all-things aviation,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR) said. “This legislation also includes critical provisions, many of which I have called on Congress to enact for years, that ensure the safety of our aviation system and that provide protections for the hundreds of millions of U.S. passengers and crewmembers who fly each year…. It directs the FAA to issue regulations creating minimum dimensions for passenger seats, it prohibits airlines from involuntarily removing passengers from flights after they’ve cleared the boarding gate, and it requires airlines to communicate better with customers during mass flight cancellations and groundings.”
The agreement includes the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, the Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018, the BUILD Act of 2018, sports medicine licensure legislation, and supplemental appropriations for disaster relief.
Many aviation industry organizations support the legislation.
“Our nation must have an FAA that is authorized for the long term as part of providing a stable, predictable funding stream for the National Airspace System,” Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), said. “Today’s news from Capitol Hill is a major step in that direction…We urge full congressional passage and the President’s signing of this bill before the Sept. 30 deadline to ensure FAA stability through the end of fiscal year 2023.”
The commercial aviation industry in the United States is valued at $1.5 trillion annually.
“The long-term reauthorization is essential for the FAA to advance projects and implement programs that advance our country’s status as the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world,” Nicholas E. Calio, Airlines for America president & CEO, said. “This measure will provide long-term certainty for the millions of passengers and countless businesses that rely on access to safe, affordable travel and shipping options every day. The legislation also will deliver the certainty that employers, manufacturers, consumers, and communities must have to continue building, investing, hiring, innovating and growing the U.S. aviation industry.”