FAA Wants Your Input on Existing Regs

The FAA today issued a notice of proposed rulemaking requesting comments to identify regulations currently in effect that should be amended, removed or simplified. “Getting public comments is a necessary element of our effort to make our regulations more effective and less burdensome,” the agency said. To focus on areas of greatest interest, and to effectively manage agency resources, the FAA is asking that commenters responding to this notice limit their input to the three issues that they consider most urgent, and to list them in priority order. Additionally, the agency wants specific suggestions on where rules could be developed as performance-based rather than prescriptive and on any specific plain language that might be used to clarify rules, as well as suggested language on how those rules should be written. Comments are due by January 14. The FAA will review the issues addressed by the commenters against its regulatory agenda and rulemaking program efforts and adjust its regulatory priorities. Since 1992 the agency has completed five rounds of regulatory review, garnering some 1,350 comments in the process. However, the agency didn’t disclose how many regulations have been amended or deleted as a result of these comments.