Senate Passes Broad FAA Bill Focused on Safety, Consumer Protection

WASHINGTON — The Senate overwhelmingly passed a sweeping aviation bill Thursday evening aimed at boosting the workforce of air traffic controllers, increasing funding to prevent runway accidents and reimbursing speeding tickets for flights canceled.

The five-year, $105 billion measure reauthorizes the Federal Aviation Administration. The bill prohibits airlines from charging families a fee for sitting together and requires planes to be equipped with recording devices in the cockpit for 25 hours – up from two hours currently – and orders the FAA to deploy advanced airport surface technology to help prevent collisions.

The bill adds five daily round-trip flights to busy Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and requires airlines to accept the vouchers and credits for at least five years.

Efforts to strengthen aviation safety in the United States have become more urgent after a series of near misses and the January 5 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 in-flight emergency.

The bill, which is expected to gain final approval next week from the House of Representatives, does not raise the mandatory retirement age for pilots to 67 as lawmakers sought to do last year.

Earlier this week, lawmakers agreed to revise the language to ensure prompt refunds to airline passengers whose flights are canceled, who purchased nonrefundable tickets and who do not seek alternative flights.

The bill increases the maximum civil penalties for airline violations from $25,000 per violation to $75,000 and aims to address the shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers by directing the FAA to implement better staffing standards and hire more inspectors, engineers and technical specialists.

Congress will not establish minimum seat size requirements, leaving that to the FAA. The bill requires the Department of Transportation to create a dashboard showing consumers the minimum seat sizes for each U.S. airline.

Congress also rejected many other consumer provisions sought by the Biden administration.

The bill also reauthorizes the National Transportation Safety Board and strengthens the safety investigation agency’s staffing levels. It also aims to boost the adoption of flying drones and air taxis in the nation’s airspace and extends existing government authority to combat drones until October 1.