Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I have but 5 minutes to ensure that this goes by voice, so I will do my best.

Mr. Chairman, no one here doubts 100 percent of the time the responsible party from just above the ground to over 60,000 feet belongs to the FAA. Any decision about whether an aircraft can operate or cannot operate belongs exclusively to the FAA. For that reason, the FAA is an independent body that has a responsibility to take seriously the implementation of NOTAMs. These NOTAMs either caution pilots or prevent pilots from flying.

Recently, there have been a number of requests where the FAA has acted not on behalf of its own judgment but on behalf of a request by another agency. These agencies include CBP, the Department of Justice, FBI, FTC, and many others.

There are plenty of good reasons that an entity--we were just talking about a little while ago the Park Service might even have a request. Because the FAA has an obligation to make airspace available wherever possible and at the lowest level of regulation and the greatest freedom and safety for the pilots, and it does have the obligation--when, for safety and other reasons, there needs to be temporary or permanent prohibitions on flying--to implement them.

My amendment simply puts a requirement that when the FAA does so that they do so based on the FAA making an independent and objective judgment when it receives NOTAM requests from other agencies.

Mr. Chairman, I hope my 5 minutes has been well spent, and I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's comments, and he is absolutely right. There are a great many NOTAMs. I remind everyone that the requirement in this amendment that it requires the FAA to make an independent and objective judgment does not mean that it must do independent research as to the validity of the request as far as background.

It can, in fact, take the word of an agency's statement of its reason, but it has to make an independent judgment as to the NOTAM.

Now, I am both a pilot of more than 40 years, and I am also a former Army officer, and I can tell you, Mr. Chairman, at the company, the battalion, and the brigade level every unit in the military has a staff duty officer who for the entire evening until morning and over weekends makes judgment on behalf of the commanding officer at that level.

Why do they have that?

It is because a level of review should always be available. It doesn't have to be extensive, but it does have to be sufficient that if it came through the FAA it would independently be looked at by the duty officer before it was put up as a NOTAM. The same is asked.

Nowhere in my amendment does it prohibit delegation all the way down to the lowest level. As a matter of fact, nowhere in this does it prohibit the use of AI and other tools to help them do it.

So I think this is not burdensome, and it is easily compliable. It does say that the FAA makes the decision, not an agency that plugs into a system who may not have the mandate, responsibility, or even the expertise to do so.

Periodic NOTAMs that have had to be pulled back when they have been submitted by other agencies are the reason for this amendment. We have actual examples where the FAA would not have done it had they made an independent decision.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chair, briefly, in response to my colleague from Tennessee, the majority of FAA NOTAMs do not originate from outside agencies. This is a fraction of a fraction of all NOTAMs, and it is only those that will be affected by this amendment.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, this is not what some who oppose it would say. This is, in fact, a very minor one, but it comes with specific requirements that exist for a reason. Agencies have chosen and actually embarrass the FAA by asking for a closing of airspace only to find out in the light of day, in a matter of days that, in fact, it was a huge mistake--sometimes politically driven. It doesn't matter why. The FAA has the right and the responsibility, and all we ask for is when it comes from an outside agency that it, in fact, have a once-over before being codified.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source