The House on Feb. 29 voted 401–19 to confirm a short-term extension of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization.
That temporary measure was prompted by a December lapse in the full FAA reauthorization.
The aviation agency was forced to furlough nonessential employees and was unable to collect taxes such as those tied to international travel and gas.
Inspections, authorizations, audits, and other certifications were also put on hold, and there was no approval for waivers for the use of commercial unmanned aircraft systems.
Before the December 2023 extension, the Senate passed the resolution unanimously after Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) retracted his hold on the legislation amid negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on additional support for Ukraine, border security, and other issues.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transporation, led by Chair Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and ranking Republican member Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), in February endorsed the full FAA reauthorization that would last for five years, pushing the legislation to the Senate.
The legislation included amendments that addressed operations across the aviation system, from commercial air travel to general aviation. This was the committee’s second attempt to advance the legislation after a June 2023 bid failed.
“With the aviation industry facing serious challenges, this legislation charts a course to address many of them while also modernizing and transforming the FAA’s operations.
“The legislation will also nurture innovation and nascent technology like air taxis, hypersonic planes, and unmanned aircraft.
“I want to thank my Republican and Democrat colleagues alike for their hard work on this bill. Today’s action moves us much closer to a final FAA reauthorization that makes the nation’s aviation system safer and more reliable.”
It’s unclear when the full Senate will take up the legislation.
“This bipartisan bill delivers improvements to aviation safety and consumer protections that Americans have been demanding,” Ms. Cantwell said.
“The bill will put more FAA safety inspectors on factory floors and more air traffic controllers in towers. It forces airlines to improve customer service—establishing mandatory refunds for flight disruptions and barring carriers from charging extra for families to sit together.
“Aviation is a key sector of the U.S. economy and supports millions of U.S. jobs. We need to make the right investments, hire the best-skilled workers, and make our aviation safety system the gold standard of the world.”
FAA reauthorization is intended to improve aviation safety and the workforce. The bill requires the FAA to implement new staffing models to reduce the 3,000 air-controller shortage and to increase staffing to close the 20 percent shortfall of safety inspectors responsible for certification and production oversight.
The measure requires the FAA to improve foreign repair station safety standards—to bring them up to U.S. standards—and deploy more surface detection technology at large and medium-sized hub airports to prevent near-misses.
Airlines must also have 25-hour cockpit voice recorders for the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate, and the bill demands more comprehensive reporting and FAA service difficulty report investigation.
