Aircraft Certification Reform and Accountability Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 8408, the Aircraft Certification Reform and Accountability Act.

This comprehensive, bipartisan legislation will help improve the U.S. aircraft certification process, strengthen Federal Aviation Administration oversight, and ensure the safety of air travel.

As chair of the Aviation Subcommittee, I am very pleased that this critical legislation is now before this Chamber for a vote.

After two tragic Boeing 737 MAX crashes, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee launched a thorough investigation into the design, development, and certification of the 737 MAX.

Since March 2019, the committee has received more than 500,000 pages of documents, held five oversight hearings, interviewed key employees at Boeing and the FAA, and listened to testimony from victims' families and from several whistleblowers.

The resulting Aircraft Certification Reform and Accountability Act improves aviation safety culture, enhances transparency and accountability, addresses undue pressure on employees acting on behalf of the FAA within an aviation manufacturer, and reinforces the importance of human factors in aircraft design and certification.

The 346 victims of the two tragic crashes and their families have always remained at the forefront of this committee's work.

A vital part of the committee's process was the advocacy of the victims' families. For nearly 2 years, the families have championed necessary reforms to the FAA certification process to ensure that no other families experience such unthinkable loss.

This bill reinforces the integrity of the FAA and U.S. aviation manufacturing.

I thank Chairman DeFazio for his leadership. I thank Ranking Member Graves of Missouri of the full committee for his leadership. And I thank the ranking member of the Aviation Subcommittee, Mr. Graves of Louisiana, for his leadership on coming together in a bipartisan way to make this bill a reality.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to support this bill.

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