The House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee began consideration this morning on the nearly 800-page aviation package released last week. The Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act would reauthorize the FAA for five years, include the first-ever title on general aviation in such a bill, increase infrastructure support, foster workforce initiatives, and pave the way for advanced air mobility.
The committee winnowed more than 2,000 proposals, requests, and suggestions into the comprehensive FAA reauthorization bill, H.R.3935, and today began to sort through some 170 amendments filed. T&I Chairman Sam Graves (R-Missouri) said he expected consideration to at least extend through the duration of today and possibly into tomorrow.
The Senate Commerce Committee, meanwhile, on Thursday plans to consider its own version of a comprehensive five-year FAA bill, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2023, that was introduced yesterday and similarly is a bipartisan effort touching upon many of the same themes, from safety to workforce and airports infrastructure.
Graves, along with his Democrat counterpart on the committee, Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Washington), stressed the collaborative nature that went into crafting the bill, and the committee headed into today’s markup of the bill with statements of endorsement from a broad swath of the aviation industry.
More than a half dozen general aviation groups jointly wrote to the committee that the GA title and other measures “will not only unlock the full potential of GA operations but will also guarantee that American aviation will thrive for decades to come.”
Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) president and CEO Eric Fanning praised the inclusion of measures to build the talent pipeline and infrastructure, while AOPA president and CEO Mark Baker said, “There has never been a more comprehensive FAA Reauthorization, or any legislation for that matter, specifically intended to help our nation’s general aviation sector.”
GAMA, NBAA, and NATA all were among the many praising the bill, as were leaders from the Airlines for America, American Association of Airport Executives, Airports Council International—North America, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Travel Advisor, and National Air Traffic Controllers Association, along with others.
Graves highlighted many of the bill’s major themes, saying it is “critical to keeping America a global leader in aviation,” and warning the country’s “gold standard status” is threatened by increased global competition, a shortage of aviation professionals, and inefficiency and lack of leadership at the FAA.
Noting that it would reauthorize FAA for five years, he said, “This bill will provide necessary long-term certainty for all facets of the nation's aviation system.” Graves pointed to investment in airports of all sizes, including small and general aviation airports, and measures addressing organizational reforms and restructuring at the FAA.
“The FAA is simply too slow in everything that it does. From rulemaking to aircraft registrations and certifications to just simple paperwork,” he said. “It's becoming more and more impossible to get the FAA to say yes on any decision or frankly even provide a decision. And this bill makes the agency more agile in a manner that won't harm its safety mission.”
Larsen, meanwhile, expressed concern that while the U.S. aviation system has been the safest in the world, “recent years have tested its limits.” He pointed to the near-collision events that exposed vulnerabilities and said the legislation is designed to address that by, among other things, expanding ground surveillance and detection capabilities to all large and medium hub airports.
It also gives flight crew protections from unruly passengers, calls for an appropriate regulatory framework for emerging industries, expands funding for sustainable infrastructure at airports, and ups support for workforce development, he noted.
During the early part of the consideration, the committee accepted a manager’s amendment that included technical corrections, increased support for the National Transportation Safety Board, strengthened cockpit voice recorder language, and called the FAA to evaluate the effectiveness of its telework posture.
Other measures that were rejected in the early goings included those that attempted to strip out a few commercial space provisions on jurisdictional grounds and an attempt to expand a helicopter noise study over Washington, D.C.