Political Quotes

“I rise in support of H.R. 6427, the Airport Regulatory Relief Act, as amended, introduced by my colleague from Alaska, Representative Begich. Current law provides small, general aviation nonprimary airports flexibility in how they construct runways by granting them the choice of using either Federal aviation paving standards or State highway paving standards. These options come with stipulations that the runways only service small planes, A, and, B, the DOT determines that it would not decrease aviation safety. Unfortunately, local and rural airports are having trouble with the time it takes the DOT to make these determinations. H.R. 6427 would allow small airports to be more agile in their project planning by changing the requirement for States to formally request permission from the Department of Transportation in order to use State highway specifications. By allowing States to simply notify the Department of Transportation of their intention to use the State highway specifications rather than formally request permission, critical airfield pavement construction projects will no longer be subject to lengthy and bureaucratic delays. For oversight, the bill maintains the requirement that the Department of Transportation make a determination on whether the use of such State highway standards would negatively affect aviation safety.”