Wrote comprehensive Bipartisan Legislation to raise the bar on aviation safety, improve the flying experience for the traveling public, better prepare and diversify the aviation workforce and foster innovation in the u. S. Airspace. Todays hearing is a critical milestone in the subcommittees oversight work to ensure the timely implementation of the law in accordance with our intent and to address new challenges. Although the faa has made some progress on fulfilling the laws directives, ongoing implementation delays threaten the important work needed to advance u. S. Aviation and aerospace and maintain our global leadership. Our first panel of witnesses are dan ellwell, faas deputy administrator and joel savat. Mr. Elwell and zavt, i expect your testimony administrations efforts to swiftly implement last years law. I would note theyre joined by staff from faa and d. O. T. And the staff will be available to help us answer any of our questions as well. Witnesses on todays second panel reflect a broad range of aviation stakeholders who are uniquely positioned to comment on what is working, what is not, and what congress can do to keep the faa and d. O. T. On track. I expect well cover a lot of ground today. So let me walk briefly through a few of my priorities. Safety is the subcommittees top priority. The Congress Must ensure appropriate safety rules are in place to safely accommodate this demand. Notably, the lack of modern rest rishlt requirements for Flight Attendants remains an issue. Allows airline to roster flight attenadapts attendants for eight hours of rest. Instead of modifying the 1998 rule, provide at least ten hours of rest by november 4th of lastyear as directed in the bill, the faa just this week issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking, soliciting comments on the cost and benefits of compliance with the mandate. Im concerned that this action is yet another unnecessary delay. So mr. Elwell, ill expect you to shed more light on the fa Decision Making related to the issue. Particularly, as some 15 airlines have already implemented the mandate are currently working toward compliance. The bill requires the faa responding to incidents involving smoke or fumes in cabins, as well as a commission to study incabin air quality. These directives are overdue, so i hope you can provide an update on how the faa plans to fulfill these mandates. Congress as well must assure the faa officially integrated Unmanned Aircraft systems or uas into the National Airspace system. Congress must also ensure that integration is safe. This committee made the necessary reforms in last years bill to ensure the agency could move forward on a Remote Identification rule. Although, rulemaking was initiated more than one year ago, the publication date has been repeatedly delayed. In july, i joined chair defazio and Ranking Member sam graves and garrett graves raising questions about the delays in issuing the remote i. D. Rule. But our questions remain unanswered. Deputy administrator elwell and mr. Szabat, i expect youll provide us with those answers today. The faa in partnership with three uas sites has successfully completed test flights under phase one of the uas Traffic Management Pilot Program and look forward to hearing more about the Lessons Learned from that program to date. As the committee continues to support advances in u. S. Aviation, the success of those efforts is possible with the investment in the next generation of engineers, pilots, mechanics and innovators. The authorization act includes a comprehensive Workforce Development title including my provision to create a new task force to encourage High School Students to enroll in aviation manufacturing, maintenance, and engineering apprenticeships. With global aviation becoming more competitive im concerned by the faas lack of progress on this mandate as well as continued delays to establish a women in aviation Advisory Board and encourage women and young girls to pursue aviation careers. Improving access to workforce training and diversifying the aviation workforce is an allaround win for employers, job seekers and the aviation and aerospace sectors. The faa reauthorization act includes numerous provisions to improve the air travel experience for more than the 900 million passengers who fly in the u. S. Each year. Years of championing the effort to improve accessibility of air travel for passengers with disabilities and pleased to see the reauthorization act included a robust title focused on improving the curbtocurb experience for these passengers. However, the departments commitment to these goals has rightly been called into question as significant delays on rulemaking, several key mandates persist. Moreover, the public is still waiting for the final action on rulemaking to ensure passengers with disabilities can access lavatories on singleaisle airplanes, an action i asked be includesed in 2016. Last years act includes safety for the traveling public, airline employees, addressing Sexual Harassment and assault through open reporting and increased accountability. Theres no doubt the faa and d. O. T. And this committee have our work cut out for us. Timely implementation of the longterm reauthorization act will provide stability for the nations Aviation Community, support the advancement of new technologies, improve american competitiveness and above all, ensure aviation safety. I want to thank, again, the witnesses for being here today. I look towardforward to the discussion. And for Opening Statement i turn to Ranking Member garret graves. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you for holding this hearing. I want to thank all the witnesses for being here today. Often, we pass laws and move on. We send out press releases. We have signing ceremonies. We move on. This law was signed in this bill was signed into law about a year ago. Almost a year ago. It includes over 400 pages of text, as undersecretary szabat includes in his testimony, it includes nearly 360 deliverables to the congress to this committee. 360. Theres an awful lot of work that went into this legislation, and we need to make sure that the outcomes actually yield or represent that congressional intent. The process of signing a bill into law is just the beginning. The reality is that implementation is everything, as is the case in many circumstances. This bill lays out or addresses policy debates in any longstanding areas where there has been dispute or been differences or a lack of a decision. It truly lays the groundwork for the future of aviation and the future of aviation infrastructure. This legislation makes a lot of progress in terms of addressing the future of aviation safety, how that applies not just to the aircraft but also to the Information Systems and the on ontheground networks adds well ss as well. This bill is a bipartisan bill. Strong, strong support from republicans and democrats. Strong vote in the house of representatives moving forward. But i want to say it again, all of this is for naught if the faa doesnt do what we directed them to do in the first place. Mr. Chairman, im glad were holding this hearing today. I think that we need to ensure that we stay on top of this and stay on top of the implementation and carry out our oversight responsibilities properly. I understand what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done. Ts its important we look to the future and decide what were going to do next. We fully understand the implementation of this legislation. I want to thank the witnesses on both panels for being here today and for your input. Im interested in hearing how the faa implemented provisions related to the new technology such as unmanned aerial systems, aircraft systems. Also want to learn the status of numerous safety process streamlining and Consumer Protection efforts. Thank you, again, mr. Chairman, for holding todays hearing and yield back the balance of my time. Thank you, mr. Graves. I turn to the full committee, mr. Defazio of oregon for five minutes. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Welcome the witnesses here today. We did send a lot of mandates. The chair listed a number. I share his concerns over those. Ill list a few others that are at the top of my list. I understand it was a big workload, but if you prioritize and address the principle concerns, particularly those that relate to safety, you know, that will be Good Progress. Flight attendant fatigue. 25 years. The faa realized fatigue is a real issue and that, you know, when youre dealing with safety critical personnel, pilots, weve adopted rules, when it comes to Flight Attendants, safety critical personnel, we havent. The rules allow an airline to keep a Flight Attendant on duty for 14 hours then you get an 8hour break. Eight hours to get off the airplane, get out of the airport, get on the shuttle, go to the hotel. Maybe make a phone call, take a shower, go to bed, get up and be back within eight hours. I dont know. Maybe you get three, four hourssleep if youre lucky. I thought we were very, very defend defendtive and clear and it would not be necessary to go through a lengthy rulemaking and im hoping that we can expedite that in the near future. Then we had the issue of cabin evacuations. When i first came to congress, i was aware of the manchester crash where people died piled up like cordwood trying to get out the overwing exist. It was a survivable crash. It took me five years in congress to get a rule that said we would take out and make space to get at the overwing exits. Two years later the industry came back with a fake study said, oh, no, that actually delays evacuations if you take those seats out. Well, we pushed back on that. They didnt put them back in. Now theyre cramming in more and more and more seats closer and closer together. People are getting bigger and we havent done a real safety evacuation drill in i think 20 years or 25 years. Were using computer simulations. I dont believe we can meet the standard anymore of 90 seconds which has been deemed to be critical. Now, if the faa thinks you can have five minutes in a survivable crash in a fire, well, then, tell us that. But if you dont think that, then we have to find out whether or not the current rules accommodate a 9 osecond evacuation. We had we have a reallife example which was the americanairlines flight in chicago which was a wide body, so it wasnt one of the new really crammed in planes, and it took them well over 2 minutes and 21 seconds to evacuate the plane. The plane wasnt even full. So telling me that these new economy carriers that cram people in so theyre sitting like this, i want to get the ceos here someday. Im going to get some of those seats and going to put them in them and keep them here for four, five hours, see what they think i wont be chairing that meeting. laughs secondary cockpit barriers. Bill lapinski, not dan, and i were on this issue before 9 11. The vulnerability of the flight decks. And united actually installed a few barriers in 757s. I was down there visiting their Maintenance Facility in San Francisco once. I said, what do you call that . They said, we call those defazios because youre bugging us so much. They didnt equip all the planes and we had a preventable tragedy, had we been able to prohibit access. Yes, weve armed the doors and now we have Flight Attendants menacingly behind a cart. And it would be very hard for a person with strength and skill to vault over that cart, knock the Flight Attendant down, take out the pilot and get to the flight deck. That was really, really clear. Now, the industry is very opposed. Its going to put a little more weight on the plane. And the manufacturers and the former chairmen tried to say, no, no, we didnt mean what the law said. We meant we meant new types. No, the law is clear. All newly manufactured airplanes will have these barriers. And, again, you know, this is being slow walked. I see that they, you know, asked for another delay. Theyre not releasing their recommendations. We got to get that out. Drones took took me about five years to rule the very, very powerful airplane lobby and chinese toy manufacturers to require that we could have remote i. D. They prohibited the faa from regulating these things. Sooner or later, were going to ingest a drone. Whats going to happen . I asked the faa three years ago, what happens if one of those crappy little quadcopters goes into a turbine . We havent had the live test. I dont know what the delay is. This is very serious. And if this you know, the commercial drone people are all with me on this. Its like, because if we have one accident because of some jerk illegally flying a toy drone, theyre all going to get grounded and its going to be quite a mess. So we really, really need that rule and now i think were not even going to see a proposed rule until december. You know, i dont know. Is it the model aircraft people, is it the chinese . Whos keeping whos holding this up . Then finally foreign repair stations. We just had an incident last week of what appears to be a terrorist action on domestic soil by a domestic employee. And, you know, i have for years, again, with bill lapinski, thats how long its been, expressed concerns and with Jerry Costello about foreign re pair repair stations. We we did some visits. Kae we cant do unannounced visits. The state Department Says then they can do upnannounced visits here. Who cares, we dont have anything to hide i hope. They dont do drug testing, as we require by law, doebtsnt do alcohol, drug, and background checks. Were doing massive, massive, amounts of maintenance overseas. Just like this guy tried to sabotage the plane there, what about somebody doing a decheck down in one of these foreign repair stations . Thats a way to thats a way to take down a plane without having to get onboard and without having to access the flight deck. So these are safety critical, potentially lifethreatening rules that we need. We need them as quickly as possible. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Now turn to Ranking Member graves for five minutes. Thanks, chairman larsen, Ranking Member graves, for having this hearing. Very glad the subcommittee is focusing on this for 2018. Very glad about that. This act is the longest reauthorization in more than two decades and its passage last october was very bipartisan. It was widely praised. But among other things, faa reauthorization, it gives the faa and industry muchneeded stability. It provides steady funding for airport and infrastructure to market on time, stay across the country and allows kpist, competitive and provides millions of good paying american jobs. It also streamlines the regulatory progress to encourage innovation in new technologies. Im particularly proud in the reauthorization of the provisions that address issues important to the general Aviation Community such as supporting small and rural airports through the new supplemental grant program, increase in aircraft registration, times from three years to seven years. Common sense changes in faa hangar use and policy related to the construction of an aircraft. Tackling important general aviation safety issues such as marking towers. And faa fees for large aviation events such as air venture in oshkosh, wisconsin, and one in lakeland, florida. Clarified faa policy relating to nonprofits when it comes to accepting donations for living history flight experiences. Promoted the streamlining and evaluation of regulations represented to certificates for pilots of experimental aircraft including the restoration of the all makes and models certificate. Supporting programs to develop the aviation workforce of the future. This is just to make a few. Its vitally important the workforce Training Programs and studies directedly the law. Its very important that theyre implemented in a timely manner. During the next seven days, General Assembly of the general aviation organization, iko, is going to meet in montreal. Im pleased faa leadership is going to be there with other regulators to discuss International Standards. And im also pleased that one of those items to be discussed is International Pilot training standards. And i understand the United States is going to present a white paper on automation and dependency in the cockpit. And ive said before, ive said this before, and im going to say it again because i dont think it can be repeated enough, that the pilot is the most important safety feature in any cockpit and his or her ability to fly the plane when Technology Fails is absolutely critical to safety. The growth of the commercial Aviation Industry around the world is so important to our Global Economy and it has numerous benefits, but that growth and rapid expansion, especially in developing nations, cannot come at the expense of safety and good training. I look forward to hearing from todays witnesses. I wish, and this isnt a criticism, mr. Chairman, but i wish that we could hear from other segments of the Aviation Community, such as general aviation, the airlines, manufacturers, airports, safety inspectors, air Traffic Controllers on the g. A. Community, so i hope todays hearing is just the first in a series on the implementation of the reauthorization law and, again, i want to thank our witnesses for being here today, and i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Graves. So noted on your request. I want to welcome the witnesses to our first panel. Mr. Dan elwell, deputy administrator of the faa and honorable joel zsabat, acting undersecretary of policy at the u. S. D. O. T. White house objection, our witnessesfull statements will be included in the record. Since that is the case, the subcommittee requests limit your oral testimony to five minutes. Mr. Elwell, you are recognized. Thank you, chairman larsen, chairman defazio, Ranking Member, get close and speak up. Thank you, chairman larsen, chairman defazior, Ranking Member graves and Ranking Member graves and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the afaas ongoing work to implement the revisions of the act 2061818. Before we begin, id like to recognize our guests today, the family and friends of those who passed in the accidents in indonesia and ethiopia. Its in honor of their loved ones we stay so intensely committed to improving safety. Although the act authorized aviation programs for five years, the vast majority of the specific mandates require faa action within the first year. We remain committed to completing the work you have given us, and i am pleased to report we have made substantial progress on fulfilling the mandates. Ill discuss accomplishments in several key areas including aircraft certification, aviation safety, Unmanned Aircraft systems, and commercial space. The faas approach to aircraft certification has evolved over time in order to adapt to an everchanging industry with safety always paramount. Continuous improvement is an integral component of the faa safety culture, and were committed to learning from our experiences and using what weve learned to improve our process. The 2018 act furthers this work. As required in the reauthorization, secretary chao this summer established a 22 Member Safety oversight and Certification Advisory Committee to advise the department on policylevel topics related to certification including Organization Designation authority or oda. The reauthorization also require the faa to establish an oda office within the Aviation Safety Organization to ensure consistency in oda oversight functions throughout the agency. We formally established the oda office in march. The 2018 act requires the faa to initiate 33 separate rulemakings in addition to creating new aviation rulemaking committees and expanding the work of the existing aviation rulemaking Advisory Committee, arac, to consider new objectives. We made significant progress on rulemakings. As the chairman mentioned, we established an advanced notice of rulemaking yesterday that asks respondents for data to assist us in developing the proposed rule. In a related requirement, in june, we published advisory information to airlines for developing Flight Attendant fatigue Risk Management plans. Currently, were receiving and reviewing these plans from airlines. In june we also directed the arac to evaluate a reauthorization requirement for airlines toinstall secondary cockpit barriers in new passenger aircraft. The faa is committed to implementing congressmandate for this safety and Security Enhancement and were working with the arac to ensure its done correct lyly. The faa is making Good Progress on several requirements ranging from contract towers and Environmental Concerns with firefighting agents to streamlining the passenger facility charge program. Were acutely aware of the need to continue balancing the interests of airports, airlines, and other aeronautical users, neighboring communities and traveling public among others. The 2018 devoted considerable attention to the faas continued work on the integration of uas into the National Airspace system. Key to this integration will be the ability to remotely identify a uas and link it to its operator, a capability that is fundamental to the safety and security of uas operations. A notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject is presently an executive branch clearance. Recognizing the capabilities of commercial uas operations to carry cargo, congress required that the faa update existing regulations to allow for the practice. The faa and industry have been demonstrating increasingly complex operations in this area as part of the uas integration Pilot Program. Were using exemptions and waivers in the interim to meet the intent of the mandate while gaining the experience necessary to change the rules. The commercial base industry is booming with an increasing number of launches and rereentries every year. Congress recognizing the growing importance of this industry require the faa stand up an office of space force within the faas office of commercial space transportation. Im pleased to say the office of space ports is up and running and were actively working with licensees and stakeholders. In conclusion, i want to assure you that were fully committed to carrying out the reauthorization as quickly as possible, make sure we dont the substance behind each requirement in a rush to completion. Be happy to answer your questions. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Elwell. I now turn to joel szabat for five minutes. Youre recognized. Chairman larsen, chairman defazio, Ranking Member graves, the committee, thank you in congress for passing the 2018 faa reauthorization last fall and for inviting me to testify on behalf of the department of transportation. I also thank the committee for allowing ms. Blane workie to join us, assistant general counsel for the Departments Office of aviation enforcement and proceedings and thanks to provision in the reauthorization, our new aviation consumer advocate. The more than 550 sections of the act cover a wide range of aviation issues, many supporting secretary chaos and this committees First Priority of safety and the departments mission to ensure the safest and most efficient airspace in the world. Despite the Government Shutdown last winter and our daily operational safety priorities within the department, we have made great progress on the safety, civil rights, and Consumer Protection provisions of the act. The reauthorization includes more than 360 deliverables for the department of transportation as Ranking Member graves noted, including those assigned to the faa. We are not able to tackle every deliverable simultaneously or produce all the required reports and regulations within the first year. We remain committed to accomplishing all of the provisions of the reauthorization as quickly as practical. We have already responded to key reauthorization requirements by establishing new offices to deal with important issues such as Office Process voiding oversight of the Organization Designation of authorization and relating to consumer advocacy and support of our nations space ports provisions of the law provide useful fulful guidance and authority, and that innovative programs such as the integrated Pilot Program for Unmanned Aircraft systems, or uas, can continue and expand. On the safe transportation of lithium batteries, the faa and the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration coordinated to match our rules with International Standards and allow lithium battery carriage exceptions for medical devices. They have established groups to provide research, evaluation, and safety recommendations on the issue. The reauthorization bolster our efforts to maintain the worlds safest airspace through the formation of several new advisory bodies. In addition to calling for reviews of the certification process for the boeing 737 max, the secretary and administrator also created groups such as the safety oversight and Certification Advisory Committee, to augment the work of multiple ongoing inquiries. Within one month, d. Omt t. Reconstituted the aviation Consumer Protection Advisory Committee and established the National Inflight Sexual Misconduct Task force. We are determined to address the problem of inflight Sexual Misconduct to enable a safe flight in every sense of the word. To ensure more accessible air service, we will develop the Airline Passengers with disabilities bill of rights. We will review with input from stakeholders, and if necessary, revise regulations to ensure that passengers with disabilities receive dignified, timely, and effective assistance from trained personnel. Well also ensure regular training occurs for personnel charged with provideing physical assistance to those passengers with disabilities. We have also issued notices and solicited application fors for the air ambulance committee. Both committees are established now. Well announce dates after coordination with the Committee Members. We have taken steps to advance each of the 33 required rulemakeings that deputy administrator elwell mentioned from the act. We expect to publish recommendations harmonizing the carriage of Dangerous Goods including lithium batteries and providing for Remote Identification of uas, a critical step in enable and advanced operations. Other planned regulations will ensure were being responsive to the flying public. The upcoming rulemaking agenda for the fall will include seven rules focused on improving Customer Experience with airlines. These proposed rules will advance requirements for limiting cell phone usage on aircraft, ensure the public receives refunds for denied or unprovided service, and clarify the rights of passengers. While we have not yet completed all our obligations under the reauthorization, we have demonstrated our commitment to meeting them and we have the right principles in place to accomplish the work. On behalf of the secretary, i commit to continue our work to a achieve a safe, accessible vision for aviation. Im happy to join the deputy administrator dan elwell and our staff to answer any further questions you may have. Thank you. I recognize myself for five minutes and i think the Committee Members appreciate both of you saying that faa and d. O. T. Remain committed to completing the mandates that we put into the bill. I also think i convey the frustration that you havent moved fast enough. For instance, on the tenhour rest rule, we were very specific about what we wanted to see and how we wanted to see it and when we wanted to see it. I guess we thought that we didnt leave a lot of ambiguity in the law of what we wanted, here we are in cement waiting on a tenhour rest rule. Can either of you address what has been the delay specifically to implementing tenhour rest . Yes, chairman larsen, thank you for that question. Ill start we will implement that rule and that provision consistent with the law, and you, i believe, mentioned it or chairman defazio, i think you mentioned that we are in the process of processing the fatigue Risk Management plans. There are 48 airlines in the country that have Flight Attendants. Weve received 28 fatigue Risk Management plans to date. Ten have been approved. And these are plans that are designed to meet the requirement. And youit was not ambiguous language, sir, but what we werent cleared from doing is normal Administration Procedures act requirements. We have to notice in comment for rule like this, have to do a cost analysis and that entails rulemaking. So as we said, it has been dropped, yesterday, i believe. Sir, you and chairman defazio, we commit that those comments that come from the anprm will inform and actually should my hope is should accelerate the eventual passage of the rule because the writing of the nprm will be informed by those initial comments and i think lead to a better written rule and hopefully expedition. We have every intention of getting that done, sir. Im sure others will have followup questions on that. I want to ask mr. Szabat what your timeline is for establishing the disabilities the bill of rights for travelers with disabilities. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for the question. As i mentioned in my testimony, we are committed to fulfilling the requirements of establishing a passengers with disabilities bill of rights. We have established the air carrier access act Advisory Committee and one of our very first steps, the first charges to that committee, is for them to take a look at the requirements that are set in statute for developing such a bill of rights and to make recommendations back to us. So if you will, the first step is weve established the committee to look at this. They will make recommendations back to us. Then our obligation is to look at those recommendations and implement them as quickly as possible for the passenger bill of rights. On the next panel, well have the president of the paralyzed veterans of america, so just prepping the pva to help us give us some guidance on how we can give you guidance to move forward more quickly. Also, with regards to workforce the Workforce Development title, i assume thats under your jurisdiction as well, mr. Szabat . Yeah. So the law directed faa to establish a women in aviation Advisory Board to get moving on youth access to american jobs and Aviation Task force. It does not seem that the d. O. T. Has moved forward an those aspects of Workforce Development. Do you have ideas for timelines on those . Thank you, again, for the question, mr. Chairman. As with you, the importance of first developing a strong workforce, recognizing the shortfalls in the workforce, and one of the key possible ways to address that and just on its own merits by bringing more women into the aviation workforce, are High Priorities for us. As it happens, within the last few days the paperwork for the women in Aviation Task force crossed my desk. We can expect to see an announcement that that task force has been formed within days, not weeks. How many more desks does it have to cross, then, for it to become a reality . In this case, i think its crossed the last desk, but until its announced, i dont want to make any commitments except to say it will be out within days, not weeks. All right. Mr. Elwell, followup on anything there . Yes, sir. Workforce is a very big priority to us as it is to the department. We are working a pace on 631 and the workforce grants. Theres some technical difficulties on getting that processed and getting it forward. We also have a huge emphasis on s. T. E. M. Aviation and Space Education initiatives. Weve increased our Employee Engagement with young people by 200 in the past year and thats a program voluntarily faa folks reach out to young people for getting into this industry. Its a its a difficult challenge because s. T. E. M. , theres a shortage of s. T. E. M. Graduates across all sectors, but, so were competing with other sectors on a shortage of these graduates, but were trying to get them early. Were talking to them in elementary school. So ill have my staff followup with you rather than ask a question about how we can help you get through these technical difficulties on the grants and conclude and recognize Ranking Member graves of louisiana for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Elwell, you and i have discussed a number of and recognize Ranking Member graves of louisiana for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Elwell, you and i have discussed a number of occasions my frustration with scenarios where congress implements a law and have an agency to come back and not follow it or invent their own interpretation it wasnt consistent with congressional intent. And when deadlines are in the law, those deadlines arent adhered to, it does cause a great bit of frustration now. I know there was some anomalies with the faa bill in that the conference negotiations between the house and the senate were very quick. I know that there was some feedback expressed by the agency about the inability to meet certain deadlines without some expedited procedures including potentially waiving the apa in some scenario but i do want to re reemphasize the deadlines are important. We want to make sure we continue to Work Together to ensure we comply with many of these, including as the chairman mentioned, the Flight Attendant rule, although i know, as i recall, im sure we can get an update later, i believe a number of the contracts that have been implemented between airlines and the Flight Attendants do include the ten hours. You mentioned in your testimony remote i. D. Can you give a bit more verbose update on remote i. D. And what the administration can do to expedite implementation . I think that this is one of the key areas as you and ive discussed in the past about the evolution of this technology, all the, i think, advances that it potentially brings to different sectors including safety Disaster Response and many, many others. Could you talk a little bit about efforts to expedite . Yes, mr. Graves. Thank you for the question. And i was remiss earlier when i started to not introduce the lady to my right, ms. Lirio liu, the faa, all things rulemaking, the acting deputy of the office of safety. I expect i will be leaning to her a few times during this hearing today particularly on this, perhaps, lirio can weigh in. First, let me say, sir, i share your frustration. I hate to miss deadlines, but i wont, and as the agency, we wont make a deadline and compromise, of course, safety. You wouldnt want us to. Were not going to do it. Not all deadlines are missed because because of that, but youre right, in this case, theres just a volume of firstyear requirements that in light of other things going on in the past year, that deadline slipped. On the remote i. D. I, too, share your points that it is the foundational rule upon which Everything Else we do with uas is going to flow. And we need we need to get it out. We had a lot of issues, a lot of technical issues, with it at the beginning. A lot of it was interagency, quite frankly. Law enforcement requirements and issues and title 18 requirements and the like. And we are very appreciative of chairman defazio changing the provision on recreational modelers. However, that caused us to basically start almost from scratch on writing the provisions. The provision, so theres been a number of things, but nevertheless, the rule is moving. Were going to get it done, and i would turn to miss lou if theres anything on the actual technical writing side of it that you wanted to add. Thank you. I have to get close. Yes, on the remote i. D. It has been one of the priorities for the organization for a long period of time and i think you heard of that at the faa in the testimonies here this its been the lynchpin for integrating the u. S. In the future. The rule never stopped from the time we started to work on it and i think as mr. O indicated we had drafted a rule and was very close to finalizing it, but it had a lot of carveouts as it relates to the section 336 of the previous authorization that accounted for recreational users. Because of that limitation, we had to do identification with various scenarios and that was one reason why when we got the provision to include them which we consider was quite a benefit and we had to go back to rewrite the rule and wed end up with a Regulatory Framework in the end. The rule is at the office of information and Regulatory Affairs at omb. We expect that well be expediting that review, as well because they recognized the significant and weve done a brief with them last friday as well as with the Technical Office with the United States at the office of management and im sorry. Could you move the microphone closer . Its me, its not you. We have the rule and it is as mr. Oh indicated it is a technical rule because it will set the basis for how we will do what we do equivalently for manned aircraft is the edsb and it will also set the framework for utm in the future which is the uas Traffic Management system, and i think whats important is even if the rule is not in place, what were trying to do through a number of other aspects is include the compliance and expedite that. Another thing thats important is this will be a unique rule and i think its pretty innovative on our part because it will be a Partnership Similar to what we do with the notification right now to get authorization through uas and its through our website. I think that we have yeah. I think that we actually have a good framework in place. There was an rfi request for information that was outlined with the provisions so that the remote i. D. Standards could be put out forward so they could start to design towards that, and i feel like even though theres a delay in the rule making there is little progress being made. Thank you very much. I will submit, section 506 regarding cybersecurity and mr. Sabat, i want to know about the status of emotional support animals and what youre doing there. We submitted questions on those as well, thank you, mr. Chairman. Before i recognize mr. Defazio for five minutes. Just the next three on the republican side will be webster, mitchell and gallagher and the next three on the democratic side will be after defazio will be lipinski, quarters and davids and heads up for folks. Chairman defazio for five minutes. Thank you. Can you assure me that the congress had an irreducible tenhour break, thats not going to change, right . No matter whats going on in this rule making or whatever . If were that explicit, even if airlines complain it will cost them a bunch of money you cant reduce that, is that correct . Thats a statute. Sir, and i can commit that under the confines of the reviews that it has to go through and the other agencies that have to weigh in, that that is the intents is to is to meet your rule i had a lengthy hearing with gsa yesterday where the law isnt the law. I want to make sure that in this case the law is the law. It says ten hours. Its very explicit. I understand, and i, you know, perhaps in the future when we have to do these sorts of things we have to obviate the rule making process and also that air carriers and part 121 are supposed to submit the fatigue Risk Management plans with no later than 90 days. They dont have to go through a rule making. They just have to send you a plan. Whats the hold up . You said youve only got 11 who completed this. We have 28 submitted, and as far as their meeting that 90 days, we are talking to them along the way. Is there a possibility of finding them if theyre not in compliance with that . Ill have to get back to you on the enforcement side of it. I dont have that right in front of me. Were pretty explicit and it shouldnt take more than 90 days and im just informed that united had that the first in january. So i dont want some low, common denominator out there dragging this out unnecessarily, and then on the secondary barriers, we ask that an order be issued. Essentially it would be a corrective action having to do with something having to do with the structure of the plane or whatever in order, but now were going to go through a rule making or an Advisory Committee on secondary barriers. What would happen if you just ordered the airlines to do it . Mr. Chairman, even an order would require rule making unless its an emergency order. It could be an emergency order. We dont want to have another 9 11. Sir, that that process still requires rule making. Making changes to the interior of the 121 aircraft is an stc a supplementarytype certificate and that requires approval from the faa. The faa has to provide for all the carriers the standards and the performance requirements for the barrier which again would normally entail rule making, and we have to think about these barriers have to cover everything from a 50seat regional jet to a twinaisle international carrier, and so there are serious things to consider both on safety the manufacturer of these doors itsthats good. I get that, but you do agree with what the law says. Theres no question that the former chairman was incorrect in saying we met new types and that we set all newly manufactured aircraft. Reproduction aircraft. Yes, sir. Thats good. And then the uas rule with omb and perhaps miss lou can answer. The trolls at omb delay a lot of necessary things. This is a critical rule. How are they going to calculate their cost benefit when we dont even know. We havent done a test yet on ingesting a drone and were not sure if it will cost uncontained failure. What are they using . What are the costs that are involved . There are no costs to the government. I dont think we can address directly the aircraft engine of the uas and the intent of the i. D. Is to allow for us to detect before you would have that encounter. Right. So there are benefits because of what we have seen already with resources to do the tracking for uas, and i think its more the benefit that we can find in allowing the new industry to operate in the safer manner than what we have been using in some cases with manned aircraft. I just dont know what omb has been and for instance last summer, we had a bad fire summer and i had planes and the whole fleet of planes and helicopters were taken down because some jerk was taking photographs of a fire and there was a drone in a restricted airspace. I dont know that anyone cant find that there is a huge benefit. Weve shut down airports when weve had drones in the airport. Theres no down side for this. Those are accounted for in the cost benefit analysis. Thank you. My times, pier expired. Thank you, mr. Webster. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to discuss an issue concerning the registration of an aircraft where a constituent of mine has gone through kind of a nightmare experience in trying to get his aircraft which he purchased from the u. S. Marshalls auction, and it was owned by a member of a drug cartel in cartel in mexico. He tried to get it registered here and it was still registered in mex de. And he tried to get it done and they aided him in trying to do that and the mexican authorities basically answered politely. Your request has been warmly received, but theyve done nothing. Theres no dispute over ownership or anything like that, so the mexican authority, i think are operating in bad faith. He hired a lawyer in mexico. They told him that giving 150,000 and well get your plane registered for you come is a little steep. Its plane and simple extortion. Something, i dont know, whatever you want to call it. So the the particular case kind of sheds light on a growing flaw in the u. S. Policy because its questioning the sovereignty of this country. In a sense, theres clearly a negative impact on citizen if a Foreign Government can stop the United States citizen here of getting an aircraft registered. Its like some kind of hostage. So, anyway, i guess my question is what is the next step, if the Mexican Government continues to refuse to give him or to deregister the plane in mexico . Ive been apprised of this situation and its a new area for me and my understanding are that there are International Agreements that dont permit us to register an aircraft, and in the past this has been a very quick thing done between state departments and the agreement is met because our state department calls their state department and the government in question says yes, we released the registration. Go ahead. For some reason, in this case as you rightly described, the government of mexico is not doing what they normally do. So we are looking into it. Were talking to the doj and were talking to the state department and the intent is to get this resolved, sir. So youre committed to going to the highest level with the mexican authorities to try to get this squared away . Yes, sir. Well do everything we can under the current agreements and law to get to the bottom of this so that your constituent can register the airplane. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, i have id like to ask unanimous consent for insertion for a letter that goes to the issue that several have talked about and thats the unmanned vehicle. So if i could do that that would be great. Without objection. I also have sort of an issue here and you brought it up and others did, and a district where there are parks, theme parks, burches of them and theme parks and theyre worlds in some cases. So theres real concern about that in that area, too and how theyre going to be able to proceed especially with some of the smaller parts, really. Im more concerned about how theyre going to proceed in getting some sort of ability to stop in proximity of the park and im in on whatever i can do to speed that up. I know twice i was with the reauthorization bills and anyway, it would be good to get on it. Yield back. Thank you. Mr. Lipinski is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. A lot to talk about the delays in rule making. The reason why its important is we have to be concerned about delays because were talking about first and foremost, safety, and i know chairman defazio. I know those that have talked about the secondary cockpit period with the flight attendance and so a delay in rule making in safety. You also have quality of life issues that were talking about here both from people who fly and those who live around airports, and im going have a question about that. You also have delays in technology which hurt the United States and the remote i. D. Rule has to do with safety, first and foremost, but it also has to do with the advancement of uas, and that is impacts impacts jobs in this country. We want to be the leader in innovation in all areas. I want to start out by asking the Technology Side i included a provision in the faa, section 192, for rnd demonstrations for zeroemission technology, and i wanted to ask what the faa has been doing to implement this program. This is advanced technology and zero emission, obviously. It is important to looking to protecting the environment and is there anything well, you can tell me about this. Mr. Lipinski, im not immediately familiar with the section that youre asking about. I will certainly get back to you if thats okay with a detailed response. I will tell you that innovation is a major priority in for secretary chao, for the administration and for us. In fact, one initiative that were trying to affect within the faa is to create an office of innovation whose charge would be to take in new technologies and assimilate them into our culture quicker than we currently do. Technology today moves, as we all know so much faster than it did a few decades ago and the faa and aviation were slow to begin with as you point out because of our safety concern, but anything that we can do on the rnd side or on the Operational Testing side. Anything that we can do to accelerate innovation especially as fast as its moving. Im all for that, sir. Section 192. Were you doing it also and what youre talking about in terms of innovation and what we can do to be helpful on that. I wanted to move on to a quality of life issue. Ive been to the airport to the district, for the economic engine that it is. Everyone hates the noise, obviously and this is a onesquare mile airport that has houses on all four sides. They are required to report on the average sounds. When can we expect the report to be completed on that . Well, sir, the section asking for a report on d and l im not sure i can give you a date on the completion of that report. Ill have to get back to you on that. I was wondering if theres any expectation that the its currently at 65 decibels that it could be maybe lowered after this comes out, the report comes out. Sir, well get the dnl report out before the end of the year. Okay. Thank you. Its been an issue with next gen and new technology. There has been increases in certain areas around airports and this is something that i would like to talk more with you about and we need to continue to work because this has been a major issue for many people who live not just in my district and ohare is outside my district and across the country. Thank you. I yield back. Recognize mr. Mitchell of michigan for five minutes. Thanks, mr. Chair. The faa discussed numerous mandates and expectations and one of the things was next gen, how it is to be structured and moving forward and it is no secret our air Traffic Control system is not kuwaited and it needed improvement and how we got there was by a significant discussion. We came to a bipartisan agreement and over
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