Bill

The Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013 is bipartisan legislation that helps streamline the general aviation regulatory regime in a manner that will improve safety, reduce costs, and stimulate innovation.

The general aviation industry includes nearly 600,000 pilots, employs roughly 1.3 million people, and contributes approximately $150 billion annually to the U.S. economy.  However, current airplane certification regulations for general aviation are outdated, overly prescriptive, and prohibit the application and use of efficient and cost-effective safety solutions.  H.R. 1848, introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS), updates the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) aircraft certification processes governing general aviation and reduces costs and regulatory burdens for bringing new products to market.

The legislation requires the FAA to issue a final rule for new small airplane safety standards that will:

• Create a streamlined regulatory regime that improves safety and decreases costs
• Set safety objectives that stimulate innovation and technology adoption
• Replace the existing prescriptive regulatory regime with new standards for compliance and testing
• Use FAA-accepted consensus standards to clarify how updated safety objectives may be met by specific designs and technologies

H.R. 1848 was unanimously approved by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on July 10, 2013.