Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Los Angeles Residential Helicopter Noise Relief Act of 2011, which is cosponsored by Senator Boxer.

This legislation is very simple. It directs the Federal Aviation Administration to develop and enforce regulations to control helicopter noise and improve helicopter safety above Los Angeles.

FAA must complete the regulations within three years, in consultation with the local community, and it must include an exemption for public safety aircraft.

The bill is a companion to legislation with the same name introduced by Representative Berman.

This legislation is long overdue.

Under current law, helicopter pilots can and do fly practically wherever they want above Los Angeles, and no agency limits their activity.

The Federal Aviation Administration controls our Nation's airspace exclusively, but it imposes no restrictions on helicopter flight paths, elevation, or hovering.

If a helicopter wants to hover over a home in Los Angeles for an hour, it can.

One neighborhood leader told the New York Times this summer that he was afraid of complaining too loudly about the noise helicopters create because he feared helicopter operators would retaliate, legally, by parking over his house.

City officials and State agencies permit the location of helicopter landing pads, but they have absolutely no power to govern what the chopper does once it takes off. They can do nothing to discourage tourist pilots from flying low and banking hard for the promise of a tip.

Bottom Line: This is, for all intents and purposes, an unregulated industry.

This reality is increasingly frustrating to Los Angeles residents who are experiencing what many people say is the most intense period of helicopter use in memory.

Every day brings a steady swarm of helicopters buzzing above Southern California's bedroom communities in what many officials say are greater numbers than ever before.

There are media helicopters, traffic helicopters, tour helicopters, paparazzi and film crew helicopters, corporate helicopters and private commuter helicopters.

Downtown L.A. has a helicopter parking lot in the clouds; helipads lie atop nearly every skyscraper.

But the city's residents may have finally reached their breaking point in July, after two consecutive weekends of extreme helicopter noise.

First, the helicopters hovered for hours on end as Prince William and his new bride, Kate, settled into Hancock Park, a Los Angeles community.

Then, a week later, the helicopters monitoring the impact of closing Interstate 405 were even worse.

Los Angeles resident Sue Rosen told the New York Times that there were, at any given time, at least five helicopters hovering over her house watching the 405. ``The noise was nerve-wracking,'' she said. ``The house was vibrating.''

The same week, a helicopter thumped loudly above the Hollywood Bowl at the exact moment Gustavo Dudamel was leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic through the adagio in the overture to Mozart's ``Abduction From the Seraglio.''

Although the Hollywood Bowl has worked aggressively with helicopter operators to establish a voluntary no-fly zone during concert nights, they have no power to enforce it, and pilots ignore it.

Noise from helicopters above the Hollywood bowl has been so loud some years that the Symphony had to stop playing.

As one pilot explained: the Hollywood Bowl managers ``are always calling the towers telling them to get us away. But they can't do anything.'' Only FAA can act.

Only the FAA has the authority to improve the lives of millions of Californians bothered by helicopters by establishing common sense rules that increase safety and reduce noise.

But to date, FAA leaders have ignored this problem. In fact, FAA has not even tracked noise and annoyance complaints.

This bill directs the FAA to take this matter seriously.

FAA would be required to bring about safer, more pleasant skies above Los Angeles in cooperation with the local communities.

The air above our cities is a common Federal resource that only Congress has the power to protect, and today the air above Los Angeles is polluted with helicopter noise.

This is therefore a very important bill for the quality of life in America's second largest city.

I hope my colleagues will support this legislation and work with us to enact it as part of FAA reauthorization.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

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