Chairmen Sam Graves and Garret Graves Statements from House Floor Debate on Bipartisan FAA Bill

"Mr. Chairman, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act reflects over 2,000 unique requests from Members of Congress, the flying public, and aviation stakeholders. This legislation resulted from hundreds of meetings and dozens of hearings dating back years. Ultimately, this effort yielded a bill of more than 840 pages and is the most comprehensive aviation reauthorization the House has ever considered. Most importantly, Mr. Chairman, this legislation passed the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with unanimous bipartisan support.

This legislation takes important steps to ensure continuity and consistency within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It makes fundamental organizational changes by updating a 1970s organizational structure for the needs of today and tomorrow alike. It establishes multiple positions, such as the Deputy Administrator for Safety and Operations and the Assistant Administrator for Rulemaking and Regulatory Improvement. It establishes an Office of Innovation, an FAA Ombudsman, and many other important changes in the organizational structure of this antiquated and slow-moving agency.

Mr. Chairman, this legislation is also focused on the passenger experience. It puts in perspective the experience of families that are parking in satellite parking lots, taking a shuttle to their terminal, checking bags and going through security, dealing with concessionaires at the airport, getting on the airplane, and then doing it all again in the other direction to get back home. We have got to have someone that looks at this entire process to ensure that it's consistent, complementary, and streamlined. That we're implementing technologies which serve the public, and pulling back the veil on air traffic control to better understand what ingredients make a predictively adverse passenger experience. Mr. Chairman, this legislation addresses many of the concerns we hear from the flying public every day.

We also need to make sure we have the workforce necessary to continue to carry the torch of international leadership in aviation. This legislation ensures that we have the pilots, air traffic controllers, the Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) mechanics, and those operating new entrants into the market.

Mr. Chairman, this legislation also makes significant advances in an area that I care a lot about -- new entrants in the market. This FAA was initially established for a scenario when you had a few airplanes a week that were coming off of assembly lines. Now, we are facing a scenario where there will be thousands of unmanned systems coming out weekly. We have to make sure that our regulatory, statutory environment is one that actually enables these new technologies to thrive in our market.

Title VII of the bill facilitates these new technologies: everything from allowing for drones to be used for delivery of packages and strengthening the importance of the FAA enabling Beyond Visual Line of Sight. It also ensures that we are operating in a risk-based framework for safety. It codifies and standardizes the Part 107 waiver process and provides transparency for applicants. It also ensures that the FAA designates sites where critical infrastructure is located -- the first step to protecting the airspace around those locations. I want to remind my FAA friends that they were first instructed to begin this process in 2016. Lastly, the bill enables drones to be used to fight wildfires and to conduct infrastructure inspections.

In the advanced air mobility space, the bill creates certainty for Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft. It ensures the rulemaking process is completed and provides certainty moving forward.

Mr. Chairman, I want to note that the leader of this bill, Congressman Sam Graves, is the most knowledgeable aviation expert ever to lead this Committee, and his hand was involved in every page of this legislation. We would not have this great bill without his leadership, without the leadership of our Ranking Member Rick Larsen, who represents a large manufacturing and innovation community, and our Ranking Member Steve Cohen, who represents one of the largest cargo logistics hubs in the world.

I urge the adoption of this bill and yield back."

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