House and Senate negotiators have agreed on legislative language to reauthorize Federal Aviation programs for five years, until 2023, setting the stage for votes this week.
The House passed the legislation on Wednesday, September 27 to reauthorize federal aviation programs for five years, sending the measure to the Senate with only a few days until the current authorization expires.
The bill (H.R. 302), which passed by a vote of 398 to 23, also includes the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, the National Transportation Safety Board Reauthorization Act, and the Transportation Security Administration reauthorization, among other non-aviation provisions.
The House also passed an FAA extension (H.R. 6897) that would give the current authorization through October 7, in order to give additional time for the Senate in case the calendar is not conducive to a vote before the September 30 deadline.
Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) said that he is intending for the Senate to take up the new authorization did not comment on passing an extension. The chamber must decide whether to take up the full reauthorization or the short-term extension.
Lawmakers included several provisions to address concerns about increased airport noise levels caused by new flight paths.
The bill would require the FAA to study the potential health impacts of flight noise and the feasibility of amending existing departure procedures.
The Transportation Department would have to finish its evaluation of alternatives to its current noise metric, the Day-Night Level 65 decibel limit, within one year of the bill's enactment.
The FAA would have to consider using diverging departure flight paths or lateral spacing to address community noise concerns when proposing or adjusting navigation departure procedures.
The measure would create a pilot program to allow stage 2 aircraft that don't meet current FAA sound requirements to operate at as many as four medium hub or nonhub airports that meet certain criteria. The aircraft couldn't operate more than 10 flights per month. The pilot would terminate 10 years after the bill's enactment, or when no stage 2 aircraft remain in service.
Each FAA regional administrator would have to designate an ombudsman to address public concerns about airport noise.
The FAA would have to make recommendations for revising land use compatibility guidelines to reduce noise exposure within two years of the bill's enactment. The measure would require a number of additional studies on noise effects and ways to mitigate it.
The legislation authorizes the FAA's core Airport Improvement Program construction grants at their current level of $3.35 billion per year, through 2023. The measure authorizes $1.02 billion for the program in the fiscal year 2019. Funding then would rise slightly each year after that, to a maximum of $1.11 billion in fiscal 2023. AIP is financed by user fees that flow into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund; the new grants would come from the general fund. One difference is that under the 2018 appropriation measure, the new grants carry a 100% federal share; the proposed authorization bill would cap the federal share at 80%.
The reauthorization would also require the FAA to prepare a report on the status of its NextGen technology upgrade program. Delays with the program were one of the concerns that led to calls for privatizing air traffic control in previous FAA reauthorization bills. The FAA would have to report annually on the return on its investment in the NextGen program. Based on the reports, it would then have to develop a NextGen priority list.
Among the other changes included within the bill, the FAA would have to revise its noise standards to include supersonic aircraft. It would have to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to authorize supersonic flights by December 31, 2019. The FAA would then be required to gather fresh data on supersonic travel and develop new rules setting noise standards. The legislation states that by the end of 2019, rules governing a new application process should be in place for companies looking to develop supersonic aircraft. It added that regulations governing flights that travel faster than the speed of sound should be in place by the end of 2020.
The N.O.I.S.E. Organization is pleased that Congress continues to put emphasis on noise reduction provisions and we will continue to engage with Congress and the FAA to make sure that appropriate stakeholders are considered and brought to the table to ensure that enacted laws are beneficial to communities and encourage continued collaboration between all parties.