[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1972 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1972

To require air carriers to modify certain policies with respect to the 
 use of epinephrine for in-flight emergencies, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 5, 2015

Mr. Kirk (for himself and Mrs. Shaheen) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require air carriers to modify certain policies with respect to the 
 use of epinephrine for in-flight emergencies, 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 ``Airline Access to Emergency 
Epinephrine Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. REGULATIONS RELATING TO EPINEPHRINE ON AIRCRAFT.

    (a) Clarification Relating to Use of Epinephrine Ampules.--Not 
later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall clarify, and 
shall require air carriers to clarify, that 1:1,000 epinephrine ampules 
included in emergency medical kits carried on aircraft before such date 
of enactment are intended to be used for the treatment of anaphylaxis.
    (b) Requirement for Air Carriers To Carry Epinephrine Auto-
Injectors on Aircraft.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall require an air carrier--
            (1) to carry on each aircraft operated by the air carrier 
        not fewer than 2 packs of epinephrine auto-injectors, one pack 
        for use on individuals weighing less than 66 pounds and one 
        pack for use on individuals weighing more than 66 pounds;
            (2) to use those epinephrine auto-injectors as the initial 
        treatment for anaphylaxis; and
            (3) to replace those epinephrine auto-injectors upon 
        expiration or use.
    (c) Training Required.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall require air carriers 
to provide crewmembers with initial and recurrent training, developed 
based on the advice of experts, on how to recognize the symptoms of an 
acute allergic reaction and how to administer auto-injectable 
epinephrine.

SEC. 3. REPORT ON AIR CARRIER POLICIES RELATING TO PASSENGERS WITH FOOD 
              ALLERGIES.

    Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to 
Congress a report describing--
            (1) the policies of air carriers in effect as of the date 
        of the report with respect to the accommodation of passengers 
        with food allergies, including policies relating to 
        communication with passengers, seating accommodations, food 
        service, and emergency procedures;
            (2) the extent of variability of such policies within and 
        among air carriers;
            (3) the extent to which passengers can determine what the 
        policies of an air carrier with respect to the accommodation of 
        passengers with food allergies are before making a flight 
        reservation on an aircraft operated by the air carrier;
            (4) the extent to which employees of air carriers are 
        trained on, aware of, consistently adhere to, and enforce such 
        policies;
            (5) the efforts that would be necessary to develop a model 
        policy with respect to the accommodation of passengers with 
        food allergies that could be made available to and adopted by 
        all air carriers;
            (6) the incidence of requests made by passengers with food 
        allergies for accommodation by air carriers;
            (7) the incidence of in-flight allergic reactions for which 
        medical intervention is requested and the prevalence of the use 
        of epinephrine for such incidents;
            (8) the incidence of emergency landings made because of 
        suspected or known allergic reactions in flight; and
            (9) the approximate cost of such emergency landings to air 
        carriers.

SEC. 4. AIR CARRIER DEFINED.

    In this Act, the term ``air carrier'' means an air carrier or 
foreign air carrier, as those terms are defined in section 40102 of 
title 49, United States Code.
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