Faa Reauthorization Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, I proudly rise today to support the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. There are a lot of important policies in this bill that I worked on, but the main thing I am glad to see included is that we accomplished this bill as a long-term bill, a 5-year authorization.

Passing long-term bills is something that the chairman has remained committed to during his leadership on the committee and is a policy I strongly support. Unfortunately, we don't see enough of that in Congress that much anymore.

One of the big highlights of the bill is the long-overdue reforms to the FAA certification process, and the committee has developed bipartisan reforms that are going to streamline the FAA certification.

Mr. Chairman, I had previously worked on the precursor reforms to this process with the passage of the bill, the Small Airplane Revitalization Act, back in 2013, and I look forward to seeing the benefits of these reforms be applied more broadly to the aviation manufacturing community as certification reform provisions contained in the FAA bill go into effect.

Additionally, there are a lot of policies that we worked on, that I worked on, in the underlying bill. And just to run through those quickly: expansion of the State block grant authority from 10 to 20 States; allowing greater testing of replacement fuels for AvGas; restoring the ``all makes and models'' certificate to experimental category aircraft; extending aircraft registration from 3 to 10 years, which I might point out, it currently takes the FAA at least a month to process paperwork to register or re-register an aircraft.

We also asked the FAA to resolve disputes between approved airshows and major sporting events that require flight restrictions.

We also worked on an important policy to prevent the local and State governments from targeting certain industries for discriminatory taxes, like the rental car industry.

And finally, we correct a poorly written guidance document which hurts folks who are pursuing aircraft construction projects. FAA wanted to restrict aircraft construction projects from individuals' hangars unless it was in the final stages by claiming it was not the ``aeronautical use'' of a hangar, which makes absolutely no sense and, clearly, this decision was not made with the understanding of how these projects work. This needs to be corrected.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, I have been a pilot, a professional pilot for virtually my entire life, and I have been interacting with people in the aviation community for more than two decades now. I understand the issues that face the industry.

When we talk about FAA reauthorization, I think about ensuring all those who rely on our aviation system can continue flying safely, securely, and freely. America has always been a leader and pioneer when it comes to aviation since the days of the Wright Brothers, and I want to ensure that continues. To do so, we have to continue to look for opportunities to incorporate technology into our infrastructure network.

I look forward to further advancing these goals in other areas of transportation as the committee works on an infrastructure bill later this year.

Mr. Chairman, I strongly support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman for his work on putting together a long-term bill.

Mr. Chairman, one of the priorities which was included in the manager's amendment is a program to invest in our small airports.

As part of the increased investment in transportation programs that was provided in the fiscal year 2018 omnibus, we provided an additional $1 billion to the FAA in discretionary grants to small airports. Now airports across the country are going to have the opportunity to compete for additional dollars to carry out the larger projects.

We also have some very important accountability measures. As such, we are asking to review all the FAA's efforts to date on NextGen. This is pure and simple accountability to ensure our tax dollars are being spent to execute the important goals of NextGen.

Mr. Chairman, I ask all of my colleagues to support the manager's amendment, obviously, and the underlying bill. This is a good bill.

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