October 28, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 170 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[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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