Notice to Airmen Improvement Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Madam Speaker, 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 piece of legislation.

In 2020, the United States was home to 7 of the top 10 busiest airports in the world. This means that, as Americans, we have no room for error when it comes to aviation safety.

Although aviation is the safest form of travel, we must always strive to do better. This is why we must address the notice to airmen, or NOTAM, system. 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, as described earlier.

My legislation addresses these issues and 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.

Americans are more comfortable and excited to travel than they have been in over a year. Let's ensure that we support this sentiment and bolster the safety in our skies.

I was proud to work with my colleagues to get this reported out of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously, both last Congress and this one.

The House also passed this legislation with strong bipartisan support during the 116th Congress, and I urge the same support this Congress of the Notice to Airmen Improvement Act.

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