[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4492 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4492

To provide for the approval authority for National Guard flyovers, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 8, 2016

  Mr. Duffy (for himself and Mr. Walz) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for the approval authority for National Guard flyovers, and 
                          for other purposes.

    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 ``Sound of Freedom Act''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL GUARD FLYOVERS OF PUBLIC EVENTS.

    (a) Statement of Policy.--It shall be the policy of the Department 
of Defense that flyovers of public events in support of community 
relations activities may only be flown as part of an approved training 
mission at no additional expense to the Federal Government.
    (b) National Guard Flyover Approval Process.--The Adjutant General 
of a State in which an Army National Guard or Air National Guard unit 
is based will be the approval authority for all Air National Guard and 
Army National Guard flyovers in that State, including any request for a 
flyover in any civilian domain at a nonaviation related event.
    (c) Flyover Record Maintenance; Report.--
            (1) Record maintenance.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
        keep and maintain records of flyover requests and approvals in 
        a publicly accessible database that is updated annually.
            (2) GAO report.--Not later than one year after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 
        United States shall submit to the Committee on Armed Services 
        of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Armed 
        Services of the Senate a report on flyovers and the process 
        whereby flyover requests are made and evaluated, including--
                    (A) whether there is any cost to taxpayers 
                associated with flyovers;
                    (B) whether there is any appreciable public 
                relations or recruitment value that comes from 
                flyovers; and
                    (C) the impact flyovers have to aviator training 
                and readiness.
    (d) Flyover Defined.--In this section, the term ``flyover'' means 
aviation support--
            (1) in which a straight and level flight limited to one 
        pass by a single military aircraft, or by a single formation of 
        four or fewer military aircraft of the same type, from the same 
        military department over a predetermined point on the ground at 
        a specific time;
            (2) that does not involve aerobatics or demonstrations; and
            (3) uses bank angles of up to 90 degrees if required to 
        improve the spectator visibility of the aircraft.
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