[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 170 (Monday, October 28, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H8487-H8488]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1600
NOTICE TO AIRMEN IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2019
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 1775) to establish a task force on NOTAM improvements, and
for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1775
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 ``Notice to Airmen Improvement
Act of 2019''.
SEC. 2. FAA TASK FORCE ON NOTAM IMPROVEMENT.
(a) Establishment.--The Administrator of the Federal
Aviation Administration shall establish a special task force
to be known as the FAA Task Force on NOTAM Improvement (in
this section referred to as the ``Task Force'').
(b) Composition.--The Task Force shall consist of members
appointed by the Administrator and shall include the
following:
(1) Air carrier representatives.
(2) Labor union representatives.
(3) General and business aviation representatives.
(4) Aviation safety experts with knowledge of international
and domestic regulatory requirements for notices to airmen
(in this section referred to as ``NOTAMs'').
(5) Human factors experts.
(c) Duties.--The duties of the Task Force shall include--
(1) reviewing existing methods for presenting NOTAMs and
flight operations information to pilots;
(2) reviewing regulations and policies relating to NOTAMs,
including their content and presentation to pilots;
(3) evaluating and determining best practices to organize,
prioritize, and present flight operations information in a
manner that optimizes pilot review and retention of relevant
information; and
(4) providing recommendations in the following areas:
(A) Improving the presentation of NOTAM information in a
manner that prioritizes or highlights the most important
information, and optimizes pilot review and retention of
relevant information.
(B) Ways to ensure that NOTAMs are complete, accurate, and
contain the proper information.
(C) Any other best practices that the FAA should consider
to improve the accuracy and understandability of NOTAMs and
the display of flight operations information.
(D) Ways to work with air carriers, other airspace users,
and aviation service providers to implement solutions that
are aligned with the recommendations under this paragraph.
(d) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the
establishment of the Task Force, the Task Force shall submit
to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report
detailing--
(1) the results of the reviews and evaluations of the Task
Force under subsection (c);
(2) the best practices identified and recommendations
provided by the Task Force under subsection (c);
(3) any recommendations of the Task Force for additional
regulatory or policy actions to improve the presentation of
NOTAMs; and
(4) the degree to which implementing the recommendations of
the Task Force will address National Transportation Safety
Board Safety Recommendation A-18-024.
(e) Applicable Law.--The Federal Advisory Committee Act (5
U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to the Task Force.
(f) Sunset.--The Task Force shall terminate on the earlier
of--
(1) the date on which the Task Force submits the report
required under subsection (d); or
(2) the date that is 18 months after the date on which the
Task Force is established under subsection (a).
(g) Authority.--The Administrator shall have the authority
to carry out the recommendations of the Task Force outlined
in the report required under subsection (d).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon.
General Leave
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1775.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Oregon?
There was no objection.
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in support of the bill introduced by the gentleman from
Minnesota, Representative Stauber. H.R. 1775 would create a task force
to review existing methods for presenting notices to airmen and -women,
or NOTAMs--maybe we have to add a W after the M, we will work on that--
to pilots. NOTAMs provide pilots with essential real-time information
regarding abnormalities or issues in the National Airspace System. For
example, NOTAMs alert pilots to potential hazards in the airspace or at
an airport, such as, more mundanely, closed runways or taxiways. They
are also used during space launches and things like that.
While pilots are required to review all NOTAMs before flight, there
has been concern about the lengthiness and completeness of the critical
information contained in NOTAMs and how the information is displayed to
and organized for pilots.
Under H.R. 1775 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 NOTAM information while ensuring their accuracy and
completeness.
Recommendations from the task force could help prevent future
aviation accidents and near accidents. We saw that in July 2017 an Air
Canada A320 almost landed on top of five jetliners with more than 1,000
people onboard awaiting take-off at San Francisco International Airport
before executing an emergency go-around. The aircraft came as close as
60 feet above one of the planes on the ground. That would have been
catastrophic if that plane had just descended a little bit more.
There were no injuries, but this could have been catastrophic, as I
said. 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 NOTAMs.
NOTAMs can and must be better and more clear for pilots. I expect the
task force established under H.R. 1775 will lead to good work and
recommendations that will improve safety, hopefully, in the near future
without any sort of lengthy rulemaking process.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting the
legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this is how legislation is supposed to work. I want to
thank my friend from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and I want to thank
Congressman DeSaulnier from California for introducing this bipartisan
legislation and legislation that is in direct response to an NTSB,
National Transportation Safety Board, recommendation.
Mr. Speaker, as you have just heard the committee chair cover a story
back at the San Francisco International Airport in 2017, there was an
Air Canada flight that was coming in on an occupied--on an occupied--
taxiway. They had been given a notice they misread and didn't fully
understand what they had been given or didn't fully abide by it, and
there were four to five fully loaded airliners on that taxiway.
Mr. Speaker, you can imagine the disaster that would have happened if
there had not been a last-minute diversion of the disaster that was
imminent in this case. There were four to five fully loaded planes
waiting for departure with the Air Canada flight coming in. This area
had been closed. They had been notified that it had been closed, but it
was not a message that they had properly either understood or received.
[[Page H8488]]
After the NTSB investigation, they found that we have got to find a
better way of communicating to airmen under the NOTAM or, Notice to
Airmen, alerts. So in direct response to what we have seen from the
NTSB and in direct response to what we have seen in this incident, what
this does is it brings together a group of experts in this field to
ensure that we can find a better way to apply lessons learned to make
sure that we get better and to make sure that these close calls do not
happen again.
So, Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this legislation. I want to
reiterate the great thanks that I have to my friend from Minnesota (Mr.
Stauber) for leading this and Congressman DeSaulnier from California
for working together in a bipartisan way to ensure that we are applying
lessons learned. We are applying common sense. And that we are ensuring
the safety of air passengers across the United States and the globe.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr.
Stauber).
Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I want to thank Chairman
DeFazio and Ranking Member Graves for their great leadership on the
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
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
legislation as well.
Notice to Airmen, or NOTAMs, are extremely important to safety in our
skies. 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.
My bill 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.
Mr. Speaker, I am looking forward to working with my colleagues on
both sides of the aisle on future legislation that directly helps the
American people, and I urge support for my bipartisan bill, the Notice
to Airmen Improvement Act.
Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, just in closing, once again, I
want to thank the bipartisan work on this legislation from Mr. Stauber
and Mr. DeSaulnier. I want to thank the full committee Ranking Member
Sam Graves and Mr. DeFazio, the chairman, for all working together.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this important legislation, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I regret that Representative DeSaulnier couldn't be here today
because he partnered with Representative Stauber on this legislation.
He has been very concerned and has been raising this issue with me
repeatedly because of the incident at San Francisco and general
concerns he had about runway intrusions and other problems. So he is on
an airplane, as we speak, flying here, hopefully, safely. That is
unfortunate since he won't be here to actually get credit on the floor,
but I want to extend that to him.
I want to thank Ranking Member Graves for his support on this and the
other Ranking Member Graves for his support on this and Representative
Larsen who is probably also on an airplane somewhere. It is rare that I
would be here on a Monday, but the harbor maintenance bill attracted me
to be here.
Mr. Speaker, I urge that this be adopted, and I urge a ``yes'' vote.
This is one more little bit of an addition, or a major addition, to our
safety culture in aviation in this country with the largest and most
complex airspace in the world, and this is a necessary step to make it
safer.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1775.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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