The House passed legislation Friday that would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration until 2023, and add new safety and consumer protection provisions for the flying public.
The bill passed in a 393-13 vote with broad bipartisan support and comes after Congress passed five short-term FAA reauthorization measures over the past three years. The measure is headed to the Senate and likely passage by this summer.
The bill includes many consumer and safety reform provisions. For example, lawmakers added last-minute language to respond to the deadly Southwest Airline accident earlier this month.
A new provision added to the bill requires the FAA to initiate a safety review of airline engines, including operation and maintenance as well as a review accidents and incidents involving airline engines from 2014 through 2018.
On April 17, a female passenger was killed after an engine exploded during flight, shattering a window and causing the passenger to be partially pulled out of the fuselage.
Other reforms include establishing a new committee that will study the safety of transporting lithium batteries, which have in some instances caught fire during flight. The bill calls for the the Transportation Department to ban lithium ion batteries as cargo on passenger planes, with some exceptions.
New consumer protection provision include requiring the FAA to set standards for service animals, banning cellphone use during commercial flights and prohibiting airlines from bumping passengers once they have boarded an aircraft.
The bill would establish a number of new regulations for the use of drones, including a privacy study and streamlined permitting process, and implement a plan to accelerate the creation of a “low-altitude unmanned aircraft traffic management system.”
The legislation drew opposition from the conservative group Heritage Action, which criticized the bill’s 10-year price tag of $110 billion and the exclusion of the provision to privatize air traffic control. Heritage said the new drone regulations usurp local and state authority and were included “at the request of certain industry interests.”
House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., had hoped the legislation would privatize the nation’s air traffic control system and speed up modernization of the technology used to direct air traffic. But the privatization provision was stripped out due to bipartisan opposition and no viable path forward in the Senate.
“I still strongly believe Congress must soon pass real air traffic control reform for the U.S. to finally develop the most modern, advanced aviation system in the world,” Shuster, who is retiring this year, said during the debate on the measure. “Right now, we can’t make that claim. The more we delay, the more we risk losing our position as the world leader in aviation.”
