Notam Improvement Act of 2023

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LARSEN of Washington.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 346, the NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023, as amended. This bill was introduced by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from California (Mr. DeSaulnier).

On the morning of January 11, the U.S. airspace came to a standstill when the FAA grounded all airline domestic departures for the first time since September 11, 2001, due to an agency contractor mistakenly causing an outage of the FAA's NOTAM system.

NOTAMs are a critical part of our aviation infrastructure as they provide essential, real-time flight safety information--such as potential hazards--to pilots, flight dispatchers, and other airspace users.

Although the FAA worked to quickly solve the problem and lift the subsequent domestic flight ground stop, the cascading effects of mass delays and cancellations were seen for hours.

I fully support the FAA's actions to ensure the NOTAM outage would not affect the safety of the national airspace system; however, our constituents deserve better. They deserve to have both a safe and reliable national airspace system.

The FAA has moved to put several operational and systematic mitigations in place to try to prevent future NOTAM outages from occurring. However, the recent NOTAM system outage shows a clear need to reexamine and modernize the safety-critical systems and legacy infrastructure that flight crews and airline passengers depend upon.

To help strengthen the integrity of the system, this bipartisan bill directs the FAA to create a task force on NOTAM improvement to review existing methods for the content and presentation of NOTAMs to pilots; determine best practices to prioritize and disseminate critical flight information to pilots in a way that optimizes review and retention; and develop recommendations to ensure stability, resiliency, and cybersecurity of the NOTAM system.

This task force will be comprised of key aviation stakeholders, including airline pilots, air traffic controllers, air carriers, and aviation safety and computer system experts, among others.

This bill is an important step in a series of efforts Congress and the FAA will undergo to modernize the NOTAM system. Later this week, the chair and I and other Members of this body will be briefed by the FAA Acting Administrator on the status of the preliminary investigation into the NOTAM outage, how the FAA is responding to the incident, and issues that Congress should be considering to further strengthen the NOTAM system.

Fortunately, we are due for an FAA reauthorization bill this year, giving us an opportunity to build upon the 2018 law and further implement any necessary improvements to safeguard the NAS from similar system outages.

The task force created under this bill will play an important role in the FAA's ongoing NOTAM modernization initiative to ensure pilots, flight crews, and other airspace users receive NOTAMs that are timely, relevant, and accurate.

There can be no compromises when it comes to safety in the national airspace.

As demand for air travel begins to meet and even exceed prepandemic levels, this bill will help the FAA and the U.S. aviation industry implement best practices to improve the safety of the traveling public and the U.S. aviation workforce.

Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. TORRES of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 346, the NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023.

The FAA's Notice to Air System, NOTAM, which sends real-time alerts to pilots about safety conditions, experienced an outage with consequences so far-reaching that it led to nearly more than 10,000 flight delays and more than 1,300 flight cancellations.

Even though the cause of the outage bore no connection to a cyberattack, the breakdown in NOTAM alerts, nonetheless, raises concerns about the cyber vulnerabilities of the antiquated systems that underlie modern air travel.

At a time when cyberattacks are rising in both scope and sophistication, modernizing the cybersecurity of air travel must be a priority for the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, 20th century air systems will no longer suffice in a world of 21st century cyber challenges.

That is why I wrote a letter calling upon both CISA and DOT to conduct a joint review of the cyber vulnerabilities of all aviation systems, including NOTAM. That is why I will proudly vote for bipartisan legislation requiring the FAA to establish a task force on NOTAM improvement.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, as the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I believe we have to do everything we can to ensure the U.S. remains the gold standard in aviation safety. That is why I support H.R. 346, as amended, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source