Notice to Airmen Improvement Act of 2021

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1262) to establish a task force on improvements for certain notices to airmen, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1262, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise to support H.R. 1262, the Notice to Airmen Improvement Act, introduced by Mr. Stauber and Mr. DeSaulnier.

H.R. 1262 will create a task force to review existing methods for presenting notices to airmen. Notices to airmen provide pilots with essential and real-time information regarding abnormalities or issues in the National Airspace System. For example, notices to airmen alert pilots to potential hazards in the airspace or at an airport, such as a closed runway or taxiway. While pilots are required to review all notices to airmen before flight, there has been concern about the lengthiness and completeness of the critical information contained in notices to airmen and how the information is displayed to, and organized for, pilots.

Under H.R. 1262, the task force will determine best practices for organizing and presenting flight operations information to pilots in the most optimal manner and make recommendations to improve the presentation of notices to airmen while ensuring their accuracy and completeness.

Recommendations from the task force could help prevent future aviation accidents and near-accidents. We saw, in July 2017, an Air Canada A320 almost land on top of five jetliners, with more than a thousand people on board, awaiting takeoff at San Francisco International Airport, before executing a go-around. The aircraft came as close as 60 feet above one of the planes on the ground.

Thankfully, there were no injuries, but this could have been catastrophic. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause of the incident was the pilots' misidentification of the taxiway for a runway, based in part on their ineffective review of notices to airmen before flight.

Notices to airmen and airwomen can and must be better for pilots. I expect the task force established under H.R. 1262 will lead to recommendations that will improve aviation safety.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Stauber from Minnesota for introducing this legislation and working together with Congressman DeSaulnier from California.

As Ms. Norton, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia, noted, in 2017, at San Francisco International Airport, a NOTAM had been issued, a notice to airmen, which is usually sent to notify pilots about changes in airspace or construction conditions or changes of conditions at airports.

One was issued that indicated that a runway was under construction and an alternative runway was open. They had an Air Canada flight that came in while four occupied planes were on the taxiway, and there was a near miss where this Air Canada flight nearly landed on a taxiway that they mistook for the alternative runway. It would have caused widespread death in the event that those five planes ultimately would have collided.

The National Transportation Safety Board, as noted, did find that the lack of comprehension, or possibly even reviewing this NOTAM, was a primary cause.

This legislation creates a task force to look at better ways of informing, of connecting with pilots, to make sure that they have accurate information and that they actually read or are aware of these changing conditions which could, as in the 2017 incident, be the difference between life and death.

Again, I want to thank Chairman DeFazio. I want to thank Ranking Member Sam Graves. I want to thank Mr. Stauber, the author of this bill, with his partner, Congressman DeSaulnier from California.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).

Madam Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Guest).

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, in closing, I want to say that the United States has the safest aviation system in the world, and air travel is the safest way to travel.

This bipartisan legislation by Congressmen Stauber and DeSaulnier ensures that we maintain that level of safety for air passengers in the future. I think it is a great bipartisan piece of legislation. I appreciate those two gentlemen working on this together. I urge adoption of the legislation.

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

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in support of my bipartisan legislation that improves the safety of air travel. I would also like to thank my colleague, Mr. DeSaulnier, for his support and leadership on this piece of legislation.

In 2020, the United States was home to 7 of the top 10 busiest airports in the world. This means that, as Americans, we have no room for error when it comes to aviation safety.

Although aviation is the safest form of travel, we must always strive to do better. This is why we must address the notice to airmen, or NOTAM, system. NOTAMs are critical, as they relay safety information to pilots that allow them to understand the possible hazards and conditions of airports and runways before actually getting to the destination.

The current system simply is not working as well as it should. NOTAMs are often buried in lengthy reports, conflating important safety information with more common alerts. These inefficiencies have the potential to create life-threatening situations, as described earlier.

My legislation addresses these issues and creates a task force at the FAA with important input from safety experts and industry professionals to address what changes need to be made to NOTAMs to make air travel even safer than it already is.

Americans are more comfortable and excited to travel than they have been in over a year. Let's ensure that we support this sentiment and bolster the safety in our skies.

I was proud to work with my colleagues to get this reported out of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously, both last Congress and this one.

The House also passed this legislation with strong bipartisan support during the 116th Congress, and I urge the same support this Congress of the Notice to Airmen Improvement Act.

Madam Speaker, first, I would like to thank Chairman DeFazio and Ranking Member Graves for bringing this bipartisan legislation to the floor.

H.R. 1262 would create a task force to recommend reforms and improvements to the notice to airmen system, a crucial domestic and international flight safety notification to pilots that has become both inefficient and outdated over the years.

The current state of the notice to airmen system has the potential to create life-threatening situations for both pilots and their passengers. This reform would provide the needed steps to provide important safety information to our Nation's pilots in a timely and concise manner.

In the most recent FAA reauthorization, Congress made it a priority that the agency delivers a new and modernized notice to airmen system, yet we have seen few results to date. This legislation would make that priority a reality within 1 year from this bill's enactment.

I would like to thank Congressman Stauber for his leadership on this issue and for prioritizing aviation safety within this bill.