[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3852-S3853]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 759. Mr. THUNE submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill S. 1790, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2020 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle D of title III, add the following:

     SEC. 342. REPORT ON NATIONAL AIRSPACE OF UNITED STATES.

       (a) In General.--Not later than 270 days after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the Director of Training and 
     Readiness of the Air Force, in consultation with the 
     Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration and the 
     heads of such other Federal agencies as the Secretary of 
     Defense considers appropriate, shall submit to the 
     congressional defense committees a report on the national 
     airspace of the United States.
       (b) Elements.--The report required by subsection (a) shall 
     include the following:
       (1) An assessment of the strategic importance of the 
     national airspace of the United States.
       (2) An assessment of whether the current airspace system is 
     sufficient to ensure components of the Department of Defense 
     have sufficient access to airspace to meet worldwide 
     operational, training, exercise, test, and evaluation 
     requirements for peacetime, contingency, and wartime 
     operations, including an assessment of the following:
       (A) Whether current civil and military cooperation 
     mechanisms are providing for the effective and efficient 
     management of the national airspace for purposes of training 
     members of the Armed Forces.

[[Page S3853]]

       (B) Whether current civil and military cooperation 
     mechanisms provide sufficient notice to permit the planning 
     of large force exercises, including any necessary waivers for 
     altitudes, short notice testing requirements, and other 
     purposes.
       (C) Whether temporary or permanent realignment of the 
     jurisdictional boundaries of air route traffic control 
     centers of the Federal Aviation Administration would improve 
     current civil and military cooperation mechanisms for 
     conducting large force exercises.
       (D) Whether the current airspace system is sufficient to 
     meet the training needs of aviators in the Armed Forces to 
     meet high-end threats, including 5th generation aircraft, 
     unmanned aerial vehicles, and hypersonic weapons.
       (E) Whether current civil and military cooperation 
     mechanisms can sufficiently address the need to replicate 
     contested combat airspace, denied access combat airspace, and 
     airspace without use of Global Positioning System for 
     training of members of the Armed Forces.
       (F) Whether current civil and military cooperation 
     mechanisms provide sufficient notice to commercial and 
     general aviation regarding exercises and special use waivers.
       (3) An audit of the national airspace, including an audit 
     of the following:
       (A) Special use airspaces.
       (B) Military operations areas.
       (C) Temporary military operations areas.
       (D) Commercial flight routes.
       (E) Instrument routes.
       (F) Visual routes.
       (G) Unfulfilled user requirements.
       (H) Whether underutilized airspaces can be returned to the 
     national airspace system to enhance commercial route 
     efficiencies in high-traffic areas in exchange for expanded 
     training for the Armed Forces in low-traffic areas.
       (I) Proposed options and solutions to overcome challenges 
     identified in paragraph (2), including identifying whether--
       (i) a solution or solutions can be incorporated within the 
     existing memorandum of understanding between the Federal 
     Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense with 
     respect to the national airspace; or
       (ii) changes to current law are required.
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