Facility for Runway Operations and Safe Transportation Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support, also, of H.R. 3423, the Facility for Runway Operations and Safe Transportation Act, the FROST Act, a bill that would make it easier for U.S. airports to store certain critical safety equipment.
I thank Representative Wied for introducing this bipartisan bill as well as his Democratic cosponsors, Representatives Scholten and Representative Gillen.
Deicing an aircraft is a vital part to maintaining safe flight operations, particularly during takeoff. As ice and snow accumulate on an aircraft's surface, particularly its wings, it can make the aircraft much harder to control and fly. That is why operators are federally mandated to use deicing equipment when ice and snow accumulate to ensure that the plane can be operated safely.
This equipment is so important that improper use has been cited by the National Transportation Safety Board, or failure to have it at all, as a cause of multiple aviation accidents, including a very famous one right here on the Potomac River, a flight that took off in 1982 from Ronald Reagan Airport.
Moreover, with climate change contributing to more extreme weather across the country, deicing fluids and equipment have become even more of a necessity.
The ability for airports to store this equipment on property is essential to safe and efficient flight operations. Unfortunately, as my colleague has mentioned, current law only allows airports to use their AIP funding, the Airport Improvement Program funding, toward aircraft deicing equipment and structures but not the storage facilities that house that equipment. It is almost comical, but this is a serious issue and something that we have to resolve.
This is a commonsense piece of legislation that we have gotten together in a bipartisan way here to address.
H.R. 3423 would address this oversight by clarifying that airports can use AIP funds on storage facilities for aircraft deicing equipment and fluids.
Bolstering airports' ability to enhance aviation safety is a commonsense solution that we should all support.
I thank Representative Wied, Representative Scholten, and Representative Gillen for sponsoring this important bipartisan bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
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Mr. FIGURES. Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 3423, the FROST Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same with this commonsense piece of legislation.
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