March 21, 2019 – On Tuesday, March 12 the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation held a hearing on the Future of Aviation touching on a mélange of emerging trends in aviation and aerospace.
March 20, 2019 – The President’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security includes proposals for a small cut in Transportation Security Administration operational funding, a large cut in Coast Guard procurement, and a two-thirds cut in Federal Emergency Management Agency transportation security grants.
March 19, 2019 – In the full fiscal year 2020 federal budget request released this week, the assumptions for the tax receipts of transportation excise taxes over the next decade made by the White House Office of Management and Budget are significantly above the estimates for those taxes made by the Congressional Budget Office. And the Administration once again boosts its overall receipt totals by requesting new transportation user fees that Congress is unlikely to approve.
February 15, 2019 – The final fiscal 2019 appropriations package that passed Congress yesterday appropriates a net $49.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security (excluding the FEMA disaster relief fund and mandatory Coast Guard pay), a $1.7 billion increase over fiscal year 2018.
January 23, 2019 – The all-too-regular budgetary shenanigans highlight once again that the nation’s aviation system should not be subject to the whims and uncertainties of political battles. It’s time for reform.
October 5, 2018 – The staffs of the House and Senate transportation committees are going to be doing a lot of reading over the next three years. The new Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, which President Trump will sign into law later today, requires various entities (mostly, but not always, the FAA) to submit 119 new reports to Congress in the coming years.
October 3, 2018 – The FAA reauthorization directly addresses the agency’s critical role in certification in order to ensure public confidence in the safety of the system for business and leisure travel. With the industry changing rapidly as new technologies come online, the federal certification process needs to be more flexible and agile.
September 28, 2018 – The House of Representatives has passed the final compromise five-year, $96.7 billion aviation reauthorization bill by a landslide vote of 398 to 23. However, the pending Supreme Court nomination has thrown enough uncertainty into the Senate floor schedule that one last short-term extension of aviation funding, taxes and programs, through October 7, is necessary.
September 26, 2018 – The following is a summary overview of the aviation and surface transportation security provisions of the compromise legislation to be considered by Congress this week.
The following is an overview of the final compromise FAA reauthorization bill released in the wee hours of September 22, broken down into five areas: funding authorizations, airline customer service, aviation safety, airports, and unmanned aviation systems. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has released a more detailed section-by-section summary of the bill here.
Wednesday, September 26 – House Transportation and Infrastructure – Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation – subcommittee hearing on Coast Guard modernization and recapitalization (witness list to be posted here) – 10:00 a.m., 2167 Rayburn.
September 12, 2018 – As the aviation industry innovates with vessels of all shapes, sizes, and uses, the House Transportation and Infrastructure aviation subcommittee assembled a panel of industry and government witnesses on Sep. 6 to discuss progress toward integrating all these moving (and flying) parts into the National Airspace System (NAS).
September 6, 2018 – On Wednesday, less than one week before the 17th anniversary of September 11, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee held a hearing to assess challenges and progress in the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) aviation security efforts.
Thursday, September 13 – House Transportation and Infrastructure – Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials – subcommittee hearing on positive train control (PTC) implementation (witness list here) – 10:00 a.m., 2167 Rayburn.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018 – House Transportation and Infrastructure – Subcommittee on Highways and Transit – subcommittee hearing on “Innovation in Surface Transportation” (witness list here) – 10:00 a.m., 2167 Rayburn.
July 27, 2018 – Although behind-the-scenes negotiations on the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill (S. 1405) continued this week, the press of other business has made it unlikely that the legislation will make it to the Senate floor next week. And with the Senate scheduled to take a recess the week after that, the earliest that the bill could make it to the floor is likely mid-August.
July 27, 2018 – The House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2018 Homeland Security appropriations bill this week, the last of the twelve FY19 bills to be considered in committee in either the House or Senate.
Summary and status of all transportation-related amendments filed to the Senate version of the FY 2019 Transportation Appropriations Act during the week of July 23, 2018.
July 19, 2018 – Earlier today, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security approved a draft appropriations bill for fiscal year 2019 for that department.
July 12, 2018 – There was widespread agreement on the need to reform laws governing how the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can regulate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) at a roundtable hosted by the House Subcommittee on Aviation on Wednesday.