FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018
Floor Speech
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 4, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018.
I am pleased to be here today with the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Shuster; the chairman of the subcommittee, Mr. LoBiondo; and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen), the ranking member.
This bill also includes important provisions of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, something that previously passed the House and somehow escaped the attention of the Senate. We are sending it to them again in the hope they might notice if it is part of this package.
Last week was tragic: the first death on a U.S.-flagged passenger aircraft since 2009, and that just followed an alarming news story by ``60 Minutes'' a few days before about an FAA oversight of a low-cost carrier.
As a result, Ranking Member Larsen and I have sent a letter to the Secretary of Transportation demanding information on the oversight of the industry. We want to make sure that the FAA is being the watchdog that they need to be.
It was many years ago, after the horrible ValuJet tragedy, the committee had already rejected my amendment to say to strip away the promotional duty of the FAA. Then, after the horrible ValuJet crash, when it turned out it was an incompetent subcontractor to a maintenance station, a totally preventable accident, they suddenly decided to change their mind and decided to include my amendment and remove the promotional authority.
The FAA's principal duty is to protect the safety of the flying public, so we have got to be sure they are doing everything needed to do that.
There is an important provision in the bill, long overdue, to give flight attendants a 10-hour minimum rest. Think of the schedule now--8 hours: Oh, well, the plane landed. You have got to get off the plane. You have got to get out of the airport. You have got to get in a cab or a van. You have got to go to the hotel. You get to return, reverse all that around, and do that.
How much sleep are you going to get?
So, finally, we are going to get the 10-hour requirement--again, long overdue. Flight attendants are critical safety personnel on the airplane. They cannot be fatigued, just like a pilot can't be fatigued.
I have another concern that we are using computer simulations to meet the FAA standard for evacuation of a plane mandated in 90 seconds. As they jam more and more and more seats into these planes, I wonder if we have reached a point where we can no longer meet that standard, and we are going to have that. We are going to have the inspector general look at that topic and see whether or not we need to revisit it.
You know, it is critical that we be able to get people off as quickly as possible. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority led this many years ago after the Manchester accident, with the spacing for the over-wing exit, something that took me 7 years to get done here. But they have also dropped in more strictures on hand baggage and other things and made that part of the briefing, which we don't get because we don't want to scare people. Well, we need to be letting people know that they can't take stuff with them if they have to evacuate quickly.
The FAA certification process, we have known for years, it needs reform, and this bill answers that call. It mandates a top-to-bottom reform of the process by which the FAA certifies new airplane engine and component designs. This will help our manufacturers become much more competitive in the world market and introduce their products more quickly to stay ahead of the market, but they will still be certified safe.
The bill also contains the text of the Flags of Convenience Don't Fly Here Act. There are some who would turn the airline industry into the cruise line industry, where planes would be crewed by the cheapest labor you can find somewhere in the world. It is being done already with contract crews out of Asia for a so-called European airline, Norwegian Air, and they are circumventing the process that the EU is bound to under our Open Skies Agreement.
The bill, unfortunately, lets stand something that Congress adopted in 2012, over my objections, which is to say we cannot have a higher standard than the International Civil Aviation Authority on lithium batteries.
Lithium batteries are incredibly, incredibly dangerous on aircraft. We have already lost two 747s, and I will discuss this more when we get to my amendment.
It is time to remove the prohibition and let the FAA regulate as they see fit regarding lithium batteries and not bind ourselves to an international group that is captive of other special interests. Just eight lithium batteries can take down an aircraft in a thermal runaway. So that, we will discuss later.
This bill also, unfortunately, does not increase the cap on passenger facility charge. I would observe, flying a lot, that there are more and more and more tarmac delays because: I am sorry, your gate is occupied. Oh, the alley to the gate is full of planes. Oh, this, that.
A lot of airports are bonded out. We haven't allowed them, since 2000, to increase the passenger facility charge, and so we are going to continue to have those delays. Until they can build larger terminals and they can build more gates, that is going to continue.
We are also putting in some new mandates on the airports, which I support in this bill, having to do with pets and changing rooms and those sorts of things; but, again, we are not allowing them to get any increase in revenues to meet these new Federal mandates. I haven't given that up, but, obviously, we are not going to get it in this bill.
You know, NextGen will be all for naught. NextGen is progressing well, despite what some say, but if we don't have enough terminals and gates at those terminals, as the former Administrator Randy Babbitt said:
We can land them with closer spacing, we can do everything in the world, but at the end of the day at La Guardia Airport when it is a one-runway operation, you can still only land them once every 54 seconds.
There are physical limits on the ground all around the country. Even if we enhance air traffic movement, avoiding weather and all that, we are going to be constrained at the airports unless the airports have what they need to make these investments.
There are a number of amendments that will improve safety and efficiency, and I look forward to discussing those here on the floor.
There is one amendment which is cropping up in this bill that relates to trucking. The gentleman from California (Mr. Denham) will offer it. It has been offered before in the House. It has never gone anywhere in the Senate. I predict the same thing will happen here.
The bottom line is there is an issue from a court case that could be solved with a rifle shot, so to speak, regarding interstate commerce. Instead, despite what the proponents have told Representative Denham and others, this language would preempt every single State wage and hour law that pertains to trucking in the United States of America. The only strictures would be the Federal hours of service and the Federal minimum wage. The rest would be wiped out by this amendment because of the unfortunate language. There is a real underlying problem, and it could be solved much more discretely.
But beyond that, this is a great bill.
I again thank the chairmen of the full committee and subcommittee, the ranking member, and other members of the committee.
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo).
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I certainly support the amendment offered by the gentleman. He listed a number of provisions. I don't want to be repetitive, but I think the call to action regarding uncontained airliner engine failures is critical. That is actually the second uncontained failure of that engine with Southwest Airlines in 18 months, which means that somewhere turbine blades are not a life- limited part. There is something amiss in the manufacturing process, and we need to get to the bottom of that.
We also need to be sure that the proper testing is being done to ensure their integrity as the planes continue to fly.
It also has some language regarding incidents of sexual misconduct on flights I support, but I am preparing and will offer a broader stand- alone provision bill on that subject in the near future.
It modestly increases funding levels for aviation programs and includes a $1 billion annual infusion from the general fund for certain AIP projects, principally for small airports in rural communities.
This falls far short of meeting the needs of all airports and all the gates and terminal work we need, as I mentioned earlier in discussing the lack of a PFC in this bill.
Finally, it creates a newly named position in the FAA, that would be chief technology officer. Currently, the department administrator acts as the chief technology officer. So I am not quite certain what that accomplishes, but I will certainly look forward to monitoring that position and the progress and reports on NextGen that that person produces in the near future.
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Frankel), a member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman.
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Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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