Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the general aviation industry and ask my fellow Members to support the Small Aircraft Revitalization Act. This commonsense, broadly bipartisan regulatory reform bill will spur economic growth, improve aviation safety, and help strengthen the health of the lighter, entry-level segment of the industry.

Mr. Speaker, there is no better reason to support this legislation than it saves lives and improves lives. Think about that. We can do both in one fell swoop.

Let's first talk about how the bill improves lives. I represent Wichita, Kansas. It is the Air Capital of the World. It is home to Cessna and Learjet and Beechcraft and dozens and dozens and dozens of suppliers to those great aviation businesses with such great aviation histories. It's the home of the National Institute for Aviation Research and the National Center for Aviation Training.

There are engineers, machinists, researchers, flight instructors, fixed base operators, among others, that all depend on a healthy general aviation industry. And then there are the operators in the industry and general aviation. This vital productivity tool for both small and large companies is critically important.

Sixteen years ago, I joined the Kansas general aviation industry, building a business with three of my colleagues, founding a company called Thayer Aerospace, a machine shop in Wichita, Kansas. We made parts for the thriving aircraft industry, but the downturn in 2008 was a tremendous blow to Wichita, in particular, and general aviation, more generally. We experienced thousands and thousands of layoffs and dramatic downsizing all across the region. The downturn exacerbated the unique challenges that the lighter, entry-level segment of general aviation had been experiencing over the past several decades.

Today, the average general aviation airplane is 40 years old. That means most of the new aircraft were built in the 1960s and 1970s, with designs of that same vintage. Current general aviation production represents less than 2 percent of the existing fleet.

We've had an over 10,000-person-per-year decline in active private pilots over this last decade. The steady decline in new pilots, flight activity, and the sales of new small general aviation airplanes that result from that are indicators of significant problems in the industry.

To tackle this problem, this bill, the Small Aircraft Revitalization Act, requires the FAA to implement the FAA's part 23 certification process and modernize it no later than 2015. The FAA Part 23 Reorganization Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), composed of aviation authorities and industry representatives from around the world, has worked over the last 18 months to create a regulatory environment that will contribute to revitalizing the health and safety of new and existing airplanes.

These changes will remove lots and lots of barriers and it will improve lives. Let me tell you how it will save lives.

The gentleman from Wisconsin talked about safety and innovation being retarded by the absence of a streamlined regulatory process. He spoke of this example of ``loss of control.'' That creates more than three times the cause of aviation accidents than any other single cause.

Since the dawn of aviation, we've taught pilots how to avoid that; but because they remain a significant safety problem, there's tremendous interest in technology and interventions to resolve it. And yet today's part 23 makes that more difficult. By putting these technologies into the new and existing fleet, it's widely believed that the safety of light general aviation aircraft could see dramatic improvements.

We need to cut this red tape. It will create savings for sure, but, more importantly, it will save lives. This is a commonsense and important reform.

America's general aviation industry is not asking for a single handout, not one subsidy. It's simply asking for a streamlined set of regulations that will permit them to get their airplanes, their designs to market more quickly, and still doing so safely.

I want to thank Chairman Shuster and Chairman LoBiondo for their support, and my original cosponsors, Mr.

Nolan, Mr. Lipinski, Mr. Graves of Missouri, and Mr. Rokita, and all the folks of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on both sides of the aisle that have allowed this bill to get this far and make it to the floor.

I urge support of all of my colleagues this evening and hope we'll have a unanimous vote on behalf of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1848) to ensure that the Federal Aviation Administration advances the safety of small airplanes, and the continued development of the general aviation industry, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 1848.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1848, the Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013.

I'd like to commend my colleague, Congressman Mike Pompeo, for introducing this bill, along with Congressmen Dan Lipinski, Sam Graves, Richard Nolan, and Todd Rokita.

I will insert into the Record a letter of support for H.R. 1848 from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Experimental Aircraft Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, National Air Transportation Association, and National Business Aviation Association, as well as a separate letter of support from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Mr. Speaker, we're considering H.R. 1848 today because general aviation is vital to our country. The general aviation industry includes nearly 600,000 pilots, employs 1.3 million people, and contributes approximately $150 billion annually to the U.S. economy. In fact, the general aviation industry is one of the few remaining U.S. manufacturing industries that provide a trade surplus for the U.S., and it has a presence in every one of our 435 Congressional districts.

However, over the last several decades, the general aviation industry has experienced unique challenges, including a steady decline in new pilots, flight activity, and the sale of new aircraft. In part, these challenges are due to overly prescriptive and outdated certification processes, which greatly increase the costs of bringing new products to market and, ultimately, increase the costs for consumers.

The bill before us is intended to address these challenges by streamlining the certification process for small airplanes, making it more efficient and effective, while also protecting the important safety oversight function of the FAA.

The goal is to improve safety at a fraction of the cost. For example, the leading cause of fatalities in general aviation is due to ``loss of control.'' There are several existing technologies available to mitigate loss of control, such as an angle of attack indicator. However, in an FAA-certified airplane, the purchase and installation of this equipment is about $5,000; whereas, the exact same piece of equipment in a noncertified experimental airplane is about $800. So right now, the FAA's complicated and costly small airplane certification process provides a disincentive to certify new airplanes and safety equipment. This is just one example of how the Small Airplane Revitalization Act will improve safety at a fraction of the cost.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker,I yield such time as he may consume to our colleague from the Fourth District of Kansas (Mr. Pompeo).

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from the 25th District of Texas, Representative Roger Williams.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to reiterate that this bill is about good government, about creating a regulatory environment that improves safety at a fraction of the cost, and ultimately about helping to revitalize an American industry.

I strongly urge all of my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1848, the Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013. H.R. 1848 would require the Federal Aviation Administration to update its part 23 small airplane design regulations by December 31, 2015.

Last week, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ordered H.R. 1848 reported favorably to the House by a voice vote.

In June, an FAA-chartered Part 23 Aviation Rulemaking Committee, or ARC, submitted its comprehensive report with recommendations for rewriting and reorganizing part 23 to the agency. Representatives from the FAA, international regulatory agencies, aircraft manufacturers, general aviation pilot groups, and labor unions all participated in the ARC. Its work followed a 2009 FAA report on the Small Airplane Certification Process and fulfilled requirements in section 312 of the FAA reauthorization bill.

Mr. Speaker, prior to the Part 23 ARC, the agency's most recent comprehensive review of part 23 was almost 30 years ago, in 1984. Part 23 has not kept up with the times. These regulations are prescriptive in nature, often written to address out-of-date technologies. As a result, they are creating cost barriers for certifying new airplanes and retrofitting older aircraft with new safety-enhancing modifications. The need to improve the process for retrofitting older aircraft is particularly urgent, given the 40-year-old average age of the U.S. general aviation fleet. Small airplane manufacturers and part suppliers across the country are limited in their ability to innovate with new technology because of these outdated regulations. This bill will allow these manufacturers to innovate more quickly and bring more safety technology online.

H.R. 1848 will fast-track the Part 23 ARC's work by requiring the FAA to draft a new regulation that emphasizes performance-based safety objectives. These new regulations make the retrofit of new technology more straightforward and also remove barriers to bringing new, safer airplane designs to market. It will help small business, and I urge support.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Nolan).

(Mr. NOLAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Barrow).

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

Mr. Speaker, first I'd like to thank Representative Pompeo for sponsoring this important legislation. And of course, thanks to our Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member Rahall and to both my Democratic and Republican colleagues on the committee for bringing this Small Aircraft Revitalization Act to the floor of the Congress in such an expeditious and bipartisan manner.

Mr. Speaker, by streamlining and modernizing the rules and regulations that govern our small aircraft industry, we'll be encouraging the investment necessary to generate thousands of new American jobs.

What this legislation does, in effect, is put together a regulatory regime that will be specifically tailored for the small aircraft industry that will allow the industry to develop performance and outcome-based ways of achieving important safety standards. It allows them to put together consensus regulations that are developed by industry, government regulators, and private nonprofit associations, and enables the industry to unleash technologies of the future, creating jobs.

I'm so proud of Cirrus Aircraft in my district in Duluth, Minnesota. They've developed a parachute that is attached to the airplane and, like a skydiver, if the airplane stalls in the sky, you can pull a ripcord and parachute the plane down to safety.

These are the kinds of technologies that have the potential to be released through this legislation. What it does, in short, is enable the designers, engineers, manufacturers, creators, and skilled workers to release all their brilliance, creating the best, safest airplane technologies going forward into the future.

So I applaud the committee and my colleagues in Congress for bringing this forward in such an expeditious manner, and I strongly urge all my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I submit this letter of support from the International Association of Machinists on H.R. 1848, the Small Aircraft Revitalization Act.

International Association of

Machinists and Aerospace Workers,

Upper Marlboro, MD, July 16, 2013.

Dear Representative: As the largest union in the general

aviation industry, the International Association of

Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) strongly supports the

Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013, H.R. 1848. This

bipartisan legislation will provide much needed support to an

often over looked, but important sector of the U.S. aerospace

industry.

After an extensive review of the current regulatory

structure that garnered input from government and industry

experts, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation

Rulemaking Committee developed the recommendations that form

the basis for H.R. 1848. Under this legislation, the FAA will

modernize the regulatory structure for small, certified

aircraft--commonly referred to as Part 23 Aircraft by the end

of 2015. Modernizing the existing cumbersome regulatory

structure and process will have the beneficial effect of

improving safety while stimulating much needed investment.

I urge your support of this important legislation. It will

make general aviation safer and help grow an industry that

has been a source of good paying American jobs.

If you have any questions, please contact Legislative

Director Hasan Solomon.

Sincerely,

R. Thomas Buffenbarger,

International President.