The U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act of 2023 on Thursday, which would fund the agency for the next five years.
The bill now will head to the full Senate for a vote; however, the U.S. House has its own FAA reauthorization bill with some different features. If the Senate approves the bill, the House and Senate versions will need to be reconciled between the two bodies before the legislation can go before President Joe Biden for approval.
The legislation includes several provisions "to strengthen oversight at the FAA and responds to safety concerns from recent aviation accidents and near-misses," according to a committee statement, such as increasing FAA safety inspectors and air traffic controllers. It also sets refund standards for nonrefundable tickets, protects vouchers for five years and triples fines for airline consumer violations.
"Airlines for America is pleased to see an FAA reauthorization bill produced by the Senate Commerce Committee after months of hard work and tough negotiations," the industry group wrote in a statement. "We are grateful that the committee chose to forgo policies that would harm consumers and unnecessarily raise operating costs and passenger fares."
U.S. Travel Association VP of public affairs and policy Tori Emerson Barnes wrote in a statement that "the Senate Commerce Committee's passage of an FAA reauthorization bill is a critical step toward ensuring the long-term safety and modernization of the U.S. air travel system, in addition to boosting air traffic controller staffing levels to meet growing demand."
Not everyone was thrilled with the marked-up bill, however. While the American Society of Travel Advisors in a statement said it was pleased that the committee agreed to an amendment package which adds a ticket agent seat to the Aviation Consumer Protection Advisory Committee, the organization recommended additional modifications, including clarifying travel agency refund obligations and exempting corporate travel agencies from ancillary-fee disclosure requirements.
Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union in a statement said that the "Senate Commerce Committee failed to write in fair wage and benefit standards for 340,000 airport service workers, instead advancing an FAA reauthorization package that won't actually fix what's been broken in our dysfunctional air travel system. … We urge both the U.S. House and Senate to consider amendments to include the revised Good Jobs for Good Airport wage and benefits standards in the FAA reauthorization package as it progresses toward final passage."
And Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Twitter, the social media site now known as X, wrote that he was disappointed to see the addition of slots at Washington Reagan National Airport in the marked-up bill. "Cramming more flights onto the busiest runway in America is a bad idea," he wrote. "We can't let backroom deal-making by out-of-region senators steamroll the needs of DMV residents."
The committee agreed to add five slots for long-distance flights to the airport, according to a report in The Hill. "The House rejected this on a robust, bipartisan vote and no amount of backroom Senate deals will change the fact that the House strongly opposes adding more traffic and delays at DCA," Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) wrote on X.
The current FAA authorization has been extended twice, to March 8, 2024.