Airport Regulatory Relief Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. FIGURES. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6427, the Airport Regulatory Relief Act, as amended, introduced by my colleague from Alaska, Representative Begich.

Current law provides small, general aviation nonprimary airports flexibility in how they construct runways by granting them the choice of using either Federal aviation paving standards or State highway paving standards. These options come with stipulations that the runways only service small planes, A, and, B, the DOT determines that it would not decrease aviation safety.

Unfortunately, local and rural airports are having trouble with the time it takes the DOT to make these determinations.

H.R. 6427 would allow small airports to be more agile in their project planning by changing the requirement for States to formally request permission from the Department of Transportation in order to use State highway specifications.

By allowing States to simply notify the Department of Transportation of their intention to use the State highway specifications rather than formally request permission, critical airfield pavement construction projects will no longer be subject to lengthy and bureaucratic delays.

For oversight, the bill maintains the requirement that the Department of Transportation make a determination on whether the use of such State highway standards would negatively affect aviation safety.

If more time is needed to conduct the safety review, the DOT may take successive 6-month extensions, so long as the DOT also notifies the airport and provides such airport with justification.

This deadline and extension process will help increase transparency for airport applicants, who will now be more regularly updated, and ensure accountability by requiring justification to come from the Department of Transportation.

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

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Mr. FIGURES. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, our local and rural airports are the backbone of general aviation in the United States, and they need Congress' help to remain cost competitive. This is a commonsense piece of legislation that removes the Federal Government.

This is not a situation where the Federal Government knows what is best. Many States have been doing this much longer than the Federal Government.

My State of Alabama is not often thought of as one in the lens of aviation history, but the Wright brothers, whom we have spoken about today at length, were from Ohio and flew in North Carolina. When it came time to open their first civilian flight school, a little-known fact is that they opened it in Montgomery County, Alabama, which I now have the privilege of representing.

They did that in 1910. The FAA wasn't founded until 1958, so the State of Alabama has been dealing with how to land aircraft on small airfields for nearly 50 years before the Federal Government was. They know how to get the job done, and this bill allows them to do just that.

Madam Speaker, that is why I support H.R. 6427, and I urge my colleagues to do the same. I yield back the balance of my time.

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