Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Rudy Yakym (IN-02) issued the following statement after the House overwhelmingly passed the Senate amendment to the bipartisan Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act to reauthorize the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for five years:

“The U.S. is known around the world as the global leader in aviation safety and innovation, and this FAA reauthorization bill will make sure America stays that way. 

“I applaud Chairman Sam Graves for his determined leadership in seeing this FAA reauthorization through with Member-driven input and broad bipartisan support. I am confident that with the commonsense changes we delivered in this bill we will shore up America’s aviation technology and critical infrastructure needs and maintain the gold standard of safety that Americans expect and deserve when they fly.” 

Background
Congressman Yakym, who serves as Vice Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee, fought for a number of provisions and legislative items that were included in the final FAA bill, including:

• A bipartisan amendment that requires the FAA to hire the maximum number of air traffic controllers for all five years of the reauthorization, which will help rebuild the pipeline of controllers and alleviate delays.
• Key elements of Rep. Yakym’s bipartisan bill, H.R. 3459, the Increasing Competitiveness for American Drones Act, which requires the FAA to establish rules that will unlock the potential of unmanned aircraft and maintain American leadership in next-generation aviation.
• Key elements of Rep. Yakym’s bipartisan amendment to stop FAA red tape from hindering model aircraft enthusiasts.
• Rep. Yakym’s bipartisan amendment to establish a pilot program to test technology that will deliver clearances via mobile device, which could help reduce congestion at smaller airports.