[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3948-3949]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        FAA REAUTHORIZATION BILL

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I would yield the floor, but I don't see 
anyone else here.
  I would like to comment on the FAA reauthorization bill. I had a 
couple of amendments to it, and I want to mention that both of my 
amendments have now been accepted. I feel very good about that. I think 
we are currently considering a bill that is very necessary to go ahead 
and get passed.
  I again commend Senator Thune and Senator Nelson for working 
yesterday to get through a number of important amendments that were 
approved by the Senate. Included in the group was an amendment I 
offered that would direct the FAA to establish rules to allow critical 
infrastructure owners and operators to use unmanned aircraft systems to 
carry out federally mandated patrols and to perform emergency response 
and preparation activities. This is one I feel very strongly about 
because there is a lot of controversy around drones, but we do know 
there are some things that have to be done--pipelines, for example. It 
is just as easy for a drone to do it, and it can be done in all kinds 
of weather.
  This amendment would apply to energy infrastructure, such as oil and 
gas and renewable electric energy. It would apply to power utilities 
and telecommunications networks. It would apply to roads and bridges 
and water supply systems operators.
  This amendment provides needed congressional direction to the FAA 
where there is a clear and articulable need, and I am glad it was 
accepted yesterday. I thank Senators Booker, Heitkamp, Whitehouse, 
Moran, and King for cosponsoring this amendment with me.
  I want to turn to a provision that is in the base text of the FAA 
bill that is of particular importance to Oklahoma but impacts the 
entire aviation community--the commercial, military, and general 
aviators--and that is because it impacts air traffic controllers.
  The FAA bill, which is the bill we are considering right now, 
includes a provision to encourage the hiring and retention of high-
quality air traffic controller instructors. This is particularly 
important to me because the FAA Academy, which is where all the air 
traffic controllers are trained, is located in Oklahoma City. These 
instructors, who are required to have prior experience as air traffic 
controllers, are discouraged from working full time due to existing 
government regulations because they are former air traffic controllers. 
Without full-time instructors, we need four times as many part-time 
instructors to provide the needed instruction time to train for the 
next generation of controllers to manage the air traffic at our control 
towers, so that means the FAA must bear four times the cost of training 
new instructors. I am glad this bill will remove the government 
regulations that discourage full-time instructors. I thank my 
colleagues for working with me to address this problem.
  Another one--and this is very significant. This is volunteer pilot 
protection. Last week I offered an amendment for consideration that 
supports volunteer pilots. This is a Good Samaritan law for pilots. 
Across the country, there are a lot of volunteer pilots. I myself have 
done this. I have been an active commercial pilot for 60 years. I can 
remember several times--once going down to an island just north of 
Caracas, Venezuela, that had been wiped out by a hurricane. I found 10 
pilots to take down with me, medical supplies, food, and all of that.
  During that time, if something had happened, even though he was a 
Good Samaritan--he was doing it at his own expense--he could have been 
sued for any number of exposures that are out there.
  People are generous with their time and provide at no cost air 
transportation to someone in need of specialized medical treatment. We 
have done that before too. This amendment would provide those volunteer 
pilots limited liability protection as long as they follow appropriate 
procedures, as long as they have the required flight experience and 
maintain insurance. My amendment would not eliminate liability but 
would limit it in certain circumstances. Furthermore, volunteer pilots 
who do not meet all requirements or who are guilty of gross negligence 
or intentional misconduct don't have any protections. Furthermore, the 
pilots are required to maintain liability insurance to qualify for the 
protection.
  In the 1997 Volunteer Protection Act, Congress recognized that the 
willingness of volunteers to offer their services is deterred by a 
potential for liability actions against them. I think that makes common 
sense. I think we all understand that. This amendment remains true to 
congressional intent and removes a disincentive that keeps pilots from 
volunteering to fly financially needy medical patients, humanitarian 
and charitable efforts, or other flights of compassion to save lives 
and to provide great benefit to the public.
  Pilots are not going to get more reckless or choose to act more 
dangerously because they have liability protection. Pilots are already 
at risk, and they are a risk-adverse group because every time they fly, 
they take their own life in their hands--regardless of why they are 
flying. These pilots are acting out of the goodness of their hearts and 
willingness to help.
  Fortunately, accidents are infrequent, and anecdotally I am told that 
in the past 10 to 15 years, there have been perhaps five or six 
lawsuits involving volunteer pilots and volunteer pilot organizations. 
So the problem isn't that that is actually going to happen, but it is 
the fact that there is a deterrent there to discourage people from 
doing what they want to do, what a Good Samaritan does. The volunteer 
pilot organizations that work to coordinate volunteer pilots do not 
need to maintain databases of lawsuits and the results of lawsuits 
precisely because they are so infrequent. If there were a lot of 
accidents and resulting law suits, I think it is fair to say the FAA, 
NTSB, and volunteer pilot organizations themselves would be 
investigating whether volunteer pilot activity was a safe activity to 
begin with.
  The larger concern for volunteer pilot organizations is that pilots 
will not volunteer for fear of being involved in a lawsuit, which would 
then prevent a needy service from being provided. So it is more about 
what the lawyers say the potential could be, and that has a direct 
impact on recruitment for volunteer pilots. Looking ahead, if a pilot 
were ever successfully sued and his or her assets were at risk, it 
would be too late to act to prevent a mass exodus of volunteer pilots.
  This amendment is about making sure there continues to be volunteers 
who are willing to provide much-needed assistance. The amendment is not 
agreed to yet, but it recognizes the value of volunteer pilots and 
their contribution to the public good. I urge my colleagues to be 
supportive of this effort.
  In conclusion, I thank Senator Thune for his leadership, as well as 
Senator Nelson, for bringing this bill to the floor. I look forward to 
a robust amendment process.
  In fact, I encourage anyone who has an amendment to come down, 
present his amendment, and talk about it. One of the problems we had 
during the highway bill was not being able to get Members to bring 
their amendments down, and it ended up delaying the bill for several 
weeks, which was totally unnecessary. I also encourage the House to 
take up and pass this bill.

[[Page 3949]]

  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Flake). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The remarks of Ms. Hirono pertaining to the introduction of S. 2784 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Ms. HIRONO. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant Democratic leader.

                          ____________________