Notam Improvement Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 346) to establish a task force on improvements for notices to air missions, and for other purposes, as amended.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 346

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023''. SEC. 2. FAA TASK FORCE ON NOTAM IMPROVEMENT.

(a) Establishment.--Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall establish a task force to be known as the FAA Task Force on NOTAM Improvement (in this section referred to as the ``Task Force'').

(b) Composition.--The Task Force shall consist of members appointed by the Administrator, including at least one member of each of the following:

(1) Air carrier representatives.

(2) Airport representatives.

(3) Labor union representatives of airline pilots.

(4) The labor union certified under section 7111 of title 5, United States Code, to represent FAA air traffic control specialists assigned to the United States NOTAMs Office.

(5) The labor union certified under section 7111 of title 5, United States Code, to represent FAA aeronautical information specialists.

(6) General and business aviation representatives.

(7) Aviation safety experts with knowledge of NOTAMs.

(8) Human factors experts.

(9) Computer system architecture and cybersecurity experts.

(c) Duties.--The duties of the Task Force shall include--

(1) reviewing existing methods for presenting NOTAMs and flight operations information to pilots;

(2) reviewing regulations and policies relating to NOTAMs, including their content and presentation to pilots;

(3) evaluating and determining best practices to organize, prioritize, and present flight operations information in a manner that optimizes pilot review and retention of relevant information; and

(4) providing recommendations for--

(A) improving the presentation of NOTAM information in a manner that prioritizes or highlights the most important information, and optimizes pilot review and retention of relevant information;

(B) ways to ensure that NOTAMs are complete, accurate, and contain the proper information;

(C) any best practices that the FAA should consider to improve the accuracy and understandability of NOTAMs and the display of flight operations information;

(D) ways to work with air carriers, other airspace users, and aviation service providers to implement solutions that are aligned with the recommendations under this paragraph; and

(E) ensuring the stability, resiliency, and cybersecurity of the NOTAM computer system.

(d) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the establishment of the Task Force, the Task Force shall submit to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report detailing--

(1) the results of the reviews and evaluations of the Task Force under paragraphs (1) through (3) of subsection (c);

(2) the best practices identified and recommendations provided by the Task Force under subsection (c)(4);

(3) any recommendations of the Task Force for additional regulatory or policy actions to improve the presentation of NOTAMs; and

(4) the degree to which implementing the recommendations of the Task Force described under paragraph (2) will address National Transportation Safety Board Safety Recommendation A- 18-024.

(e) Applicable Law.--The Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to the Task Force.

(f) Sunset.--The Task Force shall terminate on the later of--

(1) the date on which the Task Force submits the report required under subsection (d); or

(2) the date that is 18 months after the date on which the Task Force is established under subsection (a).

(g) Authority.--The Administrator shall have the authority to carry out the recommendations of the Task Force detailed in the report required under subsection (d).

(h) Definitions.--In this section:

(1) FAA.--The term ``FAA'' means the Federal Aviation Administration.

(2) NOTAM.--The term ``NOTAM'' means notices to air missions required by international or domestic regulation or law, as described in FAA Order 7930.2S.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. 346, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 346, as amended, the NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023.

Just 2 weeks ago, Americans woke to the largest ground stop of aircraft since 9/11 due to the outage of the Federal Aviation Administration's, FAA's, notice to air mission, more commonly called the NOTAM system.

As a professional pilot, I use the NOTAM system on a regular basis and know firsthand just how important it is to ensure that it is reliable and functional.

This incident highlights a huge vulnerability in our transportation system. As much as I wish we could say that this incident surprised us, this kind of issue was inevitable. Committee leaders have repeatedly raised the alarm about our woefully out-of-date NOTAM system.

This same bill has been introduced and passed two Congresses in a row, and multiple laws coming out of the Transportation Committee have demanded that the Department of Transportation and the FAA step up and address the well-known issues with the NOTAM system.

What occurred nearly 2 weeks ago is unacceptable, and the American people deserve much better. Hopefully, this incident was the wake-up call that the DOT and the FAA needed to shake off their ongoing failure to properly maintain our Nation's air traffic control system.

H.R. 346, as amended, is going to help address this failure by identifying issues with the NOTAM system and proposing solutions to prevent an incident of this magnitude from ever occurring in the future.

This bill creates a special task force to improve the utility, stability, resiliency, and cybersecurity of the FAA's NOTAM system. Composed of representatives from airlines, aviation safety experts, and other important aviation stakeholders, the task force is going to review existing NOTAM policies, regulations, and the system's overall integrity to determine best practices to increase the system's efficiency and decrease its susceptibility to outages, which cause other disruptions.

Originally, this bill was focused on improving the NOTAM presentation so that pilots and dispatchers could focus on critical information that matters. In 2017, an Air Canada flight nearly landed on a crowded taxiway in San Francisco because the NOTAM informing them of a runway closure was buried on page 8 of 27.

Mr. Speaker, we urgently need a better system and a more stable system. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from California (Mr. DeSaulnier) for their leadership and foresight on this particular piece of legislation.

H.R. 346 is a good, bipartisan, and timely aviation safety bill. It shows that the people's House can rise to the urgent issues of the day.

Mr. Speaker, I support the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, in closing, H.R. 346, as amended, takes a very important step in ensuring that America's National Airspace System is going to remain intact, remain operational, and remain safe for the American people.

Again, I thank Mr. Stauber and Mr. DeSaulnier for their work on this legislation. It is a good bill, and I urge all Members to support it.

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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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