Late last Sunday night, four members of Congress, including two in Washington, announced they had reached bipartisan agreement on a five-year mandatory bill to maintain the nation's aviation system.
But in recent days, Congress has been racing to pass a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill ahead of a Friday deadline.
The $105 billion FAA reauthorization includes new requirements for cockpit voice recorders, a change prompted in part by the Jan. 5 explosion aboard an Alaska Airlines flight. It includes increased hiring of air traffic controllers and safety inspectors, and relief measures for passengers whose flights are delayed or delayed. cancel.
The bill must first pass the Senate, where it could be voted on as soon as Thursday, before moving to the House. Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat who chairs the committee responsible for oversight of the FAA, said Wednesday that she expected the bill to be finalized on Thursday.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Cantwell announced news of the agreement last month with Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Everett), ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Sam Graves (R-Missouri) also participated.
Lawmakers emphasized the importance of a strong aviation bill, citing recent incidents such as the near-miss at an airport where planes narrowly avoided collision and the explosion on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.
In January, a panel ejected from an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 as it took off from Portland. Investigators found that workers at Boeing's Renton assembly plant had improperly secured the fuselage section and used plugs to cover the holes through which the doors entered.
As a result of the blowout, a more than 1,000-page aviation bill would require commercial aircraft to be equipped with recording devices that can store 25 hours of audio, a significant increase from the current two-hour recording device. ing. Cruz said on the Senate floor last week that the need for extended recordings became “very clear” after the Alaska Airlines crash, and that cockpit recordings immediately after the explosion were overwritten.
The bill would also require the FAA to improve staffing standards and set hiring goals to address a shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.
“We all know that air traffic controllers are the ones who get us safely to our destinations every day,” Cantwell said on the Senate floor last week. “This bill recognizes that air traffic controllers sometimes work six days a week, wasting that investment.”
The bill requires passengers to receive refunds for flights delayed by three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international flights.
This new requirement follows Department of Transportation regulations announced in April that say passengers are entitled to a refund if their flight is canceled or significantly altered and they choose not to rebook or accept a travel credit. It is a codification of It would also restrict airlines from charging families who want to sit together.
“Passengers who owe money to airlines deserve their money back without the headache or haggling,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a news release.
Although the reauthorization bill does not specifically mention Boeing, aviation newspaper Air Current reported Tuesday that the bill includes a provision that would allow the company to continue manufacturing 767 freighters, which are assembled at its Everett plant, for an additional five years. was reported to be included. Air Current reports that Boeing will be granted an exemption from international aircraft emissions regulations, allowing it to build cargo ships until 2033.
Funding for the agency, which regulates how aircraft are manufactured, operated and maintained, also includes $738 million for the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates aviation accidents and other incidents.
Since the law expired in September, the FAA's mandate has been extended three times to give lawmakers more time to finalize a deal.
The House on Wednesday approved a one-week extension ahead of Friday's deadline amid Senate negotiations on a series of amendments. Some of the proposed amendments are related to aviation, some have nothing to do with aviation, but others can be seen as last-minute efforts to get the bill signed into law.
For example, the Kids Off Social Media Act, an amendment introduced by Cruz and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), would allow social media companies to allow anyone under 13 to create accounts or profiles. It restricts users from doing so, or from providing algorithmically provided content to users. Users under 17 years of age.
Without FAA reauthorization, the FAA could face some form of closure. In 2011, thousands of FAA employees were furloughed following a two-week impasse in Congress over the FAA's budget.
