Washington, DC – Today, the House of Representatives passed four bills within the jurisdiction of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with bipartisan support. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA) and Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) applauded the passage of the NOTAM Improvement Act.
“The traveling public should be able to reach their destinations without system outages derailing their flight due to outdated technology,” Ranking Member Larsen said. “By setting up a taskforce to review and modernize the FAA’s NOTAM system, this bipartisan bill will improve aviation safety and protect our system from future costly disruptions.”
“As a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, it is my mission to protect the safety of the flying public. Following the FAA meltdown earlier this month, it is clearer than ever that improvements must be made to our aviation safety systems,” Congressman DeSaulnier said. “I am proud to have been leading the effort to upgrade the NOTAM system with Congressman Stauber and to push the FAA and the aviation industry to ensure a safe, efficient, and reliable service for American consumers, which I have been calling for since the near-miss aircraft incident at San Francisco International Airport in 2017.”
Additionally, Ranking Member Larsen and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes-Norton applauded the passage of the Securities and Exchange Commission Real Estate Leasing Authority Revocation Act.
“The Securities and Exchange Commission Real Estate Leasing Authority Revocation Act will return real estate decisions to the General Services Administration, allowing the Securities and Exchange Commission to focus on its mission of protecting investors and the market,” Ranking Member Larsen said. “I thank Congresswoman Norton for leading this commonsense bill that will make the leasing process more cost-efficient for taxpayers.”
"It is inefficient, wasteful, and redundant to have the Securities and Exchange Commission involved in real estate decisions when the General Services Administration exists for that very reason," Congresswoman Norton said. "The SEC should focus on its core mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation — not on real estate procurements, which are outside its expertise. Congress created this problem by granting the SEC leasing authority, and now Congress must fix it by revoking that authority. I applaud today’s House vote on this important bill."
Legislation passed today includes:
H.R. 346, NOTAM Improvement Act
H.R. 346, introduced by Representatives Stauber and Desaulnier, would establish a task force under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to review and provide recommendations to update and improve aviation safety notifications to pilots and prevent failures of the notice to air missions (NOTAM) system, like the one that occurred earlier this month causing thousands of cancelled and delayed flights.
H.R. 1468, Securities and Exchange Commission Real Estate Leasing Authority Revocation Act
H.R. 1468, introduced by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, would revoke the Security and Exchange Commission’s independent leasing authority and require the Comptroller General of the United States to update a 2016 General Accountability Office review of federal entities with independent leasing authority.
H.R. 255, Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act
H.R. 255, legislation introduced by Congresswoman González Colón, extends the deadline by which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) must develop a working group to conduct a study and develop a plan to reduce the complexity of preliminary damage assessments and help people seeking assistance post disaster.
H.R. 259, Post-Disaster Assistance Online Accountability Act
H.R. 259, legislation introduced by Congresswoman González Colón, would create a new system for tracking federal disaster projects and assistance by establishing a single online repository for federal disaster assistance information. The bill requires agencies that offer disaster assistance to submit information to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and ensure that data is available to the public.