FAA And NTSB Reauthorization: A Lesson In Bipartisanship

When President Joe Biden signed into law the sweeping five-year reauthorization package FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reauthorization package into law on May 16, it’s fair to say it was a big relief to many across the U.S. aviation industry because these things rarely go smoothly. It put in motion a 1,000-page bill that incorporates more than 1,200 measures and directives, including many that affect the business and general aviation community.

While years in the making, the completion of the bill came less than a year after the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed it unanimously and just three months after the Senate Commerce Committee voted out its version. And while it did take four short-term extensions of the FAA’s operating authority before the House and Senate concluded work on it, that was relatively short and painless compared with the process in recent decades, which was often contentious—pitting one group aviation stakeholder against another—and required dozens of extensions.

What seemed special about this bill was a determination to keep it bipartisan, which meant numerous compromises on the front end.

BJT sister publication AIN monthly magazine editor Kerry Lynch spoke with the committee’s Republican chairman Sam Graves about what it took to get the bill passed and why it matters so much to the industry. As AIN’s senior editor based in Washington, DC, Kerry has followed the sometimes tortuous path to reauthorizations for many years and so she is well placed to get to the bottom of how this breakthrough happened.