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Opening remarks, as prepared, of Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) and Subcommittee on Aviation Ranking Member Garret Graves (R-LA) from today’s hearing entitled, “Finding the Right Frequency: 5G Deployment & Aviation Safety”:

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO):

Thank you, Chair Larsen and Ranking Member Graves, and thank you to our witnesses on both panels for being here today.

It’s no secret that our Nation continues to grapple with one crisis after the next.  Thankfully, though, we’re here today to talk about one crisis that was narrowly averted, for the time being.  I want to commend the aviation and telecom industries for their collaborative efforts to ensure that aviation safety and 5G deployment can safely co-exist.

It goes without saying that alarmist headlines, especially those about complex avionics and spectrum issues, lead to unhelpful finger pointing and distract from serious and technical efforts that produce lasting solutions.

Regrettably, many of these headlines were by-products of a botched government coordination process, even though the issues have been raised publicly for years now.  The American people would have been better served had the government acted much sooner than it did in bringing together the experts at FAA and FCC, and the related industries, to address these issues.

But we’re here now, and I know that members on both sides of the aisle are eager to hear what has to happen in the short-, medium-, and long-term to fully and permanently resolve any issues with potential 5G interference with radio altimeters.

As always, aviation safety is the number one priority of this subcommittee and the FAA.  That safety can only be ensured when we’re not lurching from one deadline to another.  Safety also requires certainty, something that is sorely lacking right now for both air carriers and wireless carriers.

This topic is an issue of immense economic significance to both the telecommunications and aviation industries.  It’s crucial that all parties, under the most recent agreement, use this time to work together to devise and implement a permanent solution that facilitates 5G rollout and ensures aviation safety that works for all users of the system, whether they’re major air carriers, regional airlines, helicopters, or other general aviation operators.  That is the balance that we have to strike, and I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today to see how we do it.

Subcommittee on Aviation Ranking Member Garret Graves (R-LA):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate you having this hearing

The United States has the safest aviation industry in the world. We have the gold standard in safety and innovation, something this committee has focused on significantly over the last three years.

I also believe I can speak for everyone on this panel, whether Republican or Democrat, that we all support the deployment of 5G C-band and efforts to help to bridge the digital divide and improve wireless connectivity throughout our country.

Unfortunately, a lack of leadership resulted in those two goals not being able to coexist, and we find ourselves in an absolutely ridiculous, inexcusable situation. After knowing for years that there would be hurdles in deploying a new band of spectrum, nothing was done to cooperate and mitigate those risks. At the very last minute before deployment of this new technology, we heard cries and demands for delay. This was entirely preventable.

We saw three very capable agencies -- FCC, FAA, and NTIA -- play chicken with one another. And that game of chicken ended up threatening aviation safety.

There is no excuse for us to be in this situation. This is what you would expect from a country that doesn’t have the governance structure that we have in the United States. It’s embarrassing and I will say it again – ridiculous and inexcusable.

The traveling public expects that airlines are going to be safe.

We already have enough uncertainty related to schedules and weather as the industry is recovering from the pandemic, and we don’t need to create additional problems that further disrupt airline travel.

So, how do you balance aviation safety and the deployment of 5G C-band, ensuring that our altimeters are operational to support aviation safety and, at the same time, continue to deploy new technology to improve communication?

It starts with leadership and requires fundamental changes in the two primary agencies’ – the FAA’s and the FCC’s – approach and anticipation of conflicts within their mission areas. Neither agency should sit back and wait to be acted upon by the other, and each agency should consider how its internal culture influences that operational procedure.

The communications regulator, the FCC, searches for evidence that there is interference between 5G and aviation safety technologies. And the FAA, the aviation safety regulator, searches for proof that there isn’t any. Totally different approaches.

While both agencies are actively engaged in a constructive dialogue today, these challenges are not yet overcome. We are still in the middle of this mess with temporary extensions, mitigation features, and band-aids. And although the temperature has been turned down for now, there is an awful lot of work to be done by all parties as we move forward for this band of spectrum, and for future technological advances which will undoubtedly pose similar risks.

Administrator Dickson, I want to thank you and your team for working diligently through the holidays and over the past month to keep our aviation system safe and operating while the significant rollout of 5G C-band across the country has occurred.

And I know we’ve asked a lot of your team, and I know we are going to be asking for a whole lot more over the next few months. We need them to analyze the data they’re receiving from radio altimeter manufacturers, wireless communication companies, and aircraft manufacturers, and report what they’ve learned about potential interference and deploy mitigation strategies which preserve aviation safety while ensuring deployment of this next generation of technologies. We need a lot of work in terms of the alternatives approved in order to allow aviation safety to continue.

We need them to work with RTCA to expedite the development and publication of new radio altimeter standards and manufacturers to move forward. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses today, but I want to say again that I am glad everyone is working well together now. But it shouldn’t have taken this long. That the White House didn’t step in well before we reached this level of chaos is inexcusable.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing and I look forward to hearing from our witnesses.

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