[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1848 Introduced in House (IH)]
113th CONGRESS
1st Session
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.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 7, 2013
Mr. Pompeo (for himself, Mr. Lipinski, Mr. Graves of Missouri, Mr.
Nolan, and Mr. Rokita) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Small Airplane Revitalization Act of
2013''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) A healthy small aircraft industry is integral to
economic growth and to maintaining an effective transportation
infrastructure for communities and nations around the world.
(2) Small aircraft comprise nearly 90 percent of FAA-type
certified general aviation aircraft.
(3) General aviation provides for the cultivation of a
workforce of engineers, manufacturing and maintenance
professionals, and pilots who secure the Nation's economic
success and defense.
(4) General aviation contributes to well-paying
manufacturing and technology jobs in the United States, and
these products are exported in great numbers, providing a
positive trade balance.
(5) Technology developed and proven in general aviation
aids in the success and safety of all sectors of aviation and
scientific competence.
(6) The average small airplane in the United States is now
40 years old and the regulatory barriers to bringing new
designs to market are resulting in a lack of innovation and
investment in small airplane design.
(7) Over the past decade, the United States typically lost
10,000 active private pilots per year partially due to a lack
of cost-effective, new small airplanes.
(8) General aviation safety can be improved by modernizing
and revamping the regulations for this sector to clear the path
for technology adoption and cost effective means to retrofit
the existing fleet with new safety technologies.
SEC. 3. FAA SAFETY AND REGULATORY IMPROVEMENTS FOR GENERAL AVIATION.
(a) Establishment of FAA Safety and Regulatory Improvements for
General Aviation.--The Administrator of the Federal Aviation
Administration shall advance the safety and continued development of
small airplanes by reorganizing the certification requirements to
streamline the approval of safety advancements.
(b) Regulations.--The Administrator shall issue a final rule based
on the FAA's Part 23 Reorganization Aviation Rulemaking Committee
(established in August 2011) by December 31, 2015. The final rule shall
meet the following objectives of the Part 23 Committee:
(1) Create a regulatory regime for small airplanes that
will improve safety and decrease certification costs.
(2) Set broad, outcome driven safety objectives that will
spur innovation and technology adoption.
(3) Replace current, prescriptive requirements contained in
FAA rules with performance based regulations.
(4) Use FAA-accepted consensus standards to clarify how the
Part 23 safety objectives may be met by specific designs and
technologies.
(c) Consensus-Based Standards.--The Administrator shall use
acceptable consensus-based standards whenever possible in the spirit of
the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1996 (15 U.S.C.
3701 note) while continuing to evaluate traditional methods for meeting
the objectives of Part 23.
(d) Safety Cooperation.--The Administrator shall lead the effort to
improve general aviation safety by working with leading aviation
regulators to assist them in adopting a complementary regulatory
approach for small airplanes.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act, the following definitions apply:
(1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the
Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.
(2) Consensus standards.--The term ``consensus standards''
means standards developed by voluntary organizations which
plan, develop, establish, or coordinate voluntary standards
using agreed-upon procedures, both domestic and international.
These standards include provisions requiring that owners of
relevant intellectual property have agreed to make that
intellectual property available on a nondiscriminatory,
royalty-free, or reasonable royalty basis to all interested
parties. These bodies have the attributes of openness, balance
of interest, due process, an appeals process and consensus.
(3) FAA.--The term ``FAA'' means the Federal Aviation
Administration.
(4) General aviation.--The term ``general aviation'' means
all aviation activities other than scheduled commercial airline
operations and military aviation.
(5) Small airplane.--The term ``small airplane'' means FAA-
type certificated airplanes that meet the parameters of part 23
of title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
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