Airport Regulatory Relief Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEGICH. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6427, the Airport Regulatory Relief Act of 2025, a bill I introduced to cut unnecessary Federal red tape and deliver real cost savings to America's small, rural airports, especially those across my home State of Alaska.

For Alaska, maintaining our small airports is essential to keeping people, goods, and services moving, ensuring that supplies can reach even the most remote communities, and preserving access to lifesaving medical care, reliable mail service, and economic opportunity.

For years, the FAA has required even our smallest nonprimary airports, those serving aircraft under 60,000 pounds gross weight, to follow the same costly, one-size-fits-all Federal pavement standards written for the Nation's largest international hubs. These rigid mandates and bureaucratic approval processes drive up construction costs, create lengthy delays, and stall critical runway repairs.

H.R. 6427 fixes exactly that problem. It allows States to use their own proven highway construction standards for airfield pavement projects at these nonprimary airports.

The process is simple and safe: The State simply notifies the Secretary of its intent, and the FAA must determine that the specifications will not negatively affect safety in any way. There is no new Federal spending and no lowering of standards, just commonsense flexibility that gets work done faster and cheaper for the airports that need it most.

This legislation has strong bipartisan support because it helps rural airports in every corner of the country without ever compromising the safety of the traveling public.

Madam Speaker, in Alaska, our airports are lifelines. Passing H.R. 6427 will empower States and local communities to maintain those lifelines more efficiently and affordably.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense measure.

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