Washington Update – August
Steve Hitchcock – KAAA Government Affairs
August is the “District Work Period” for the U.S. Congress. Senators and Representatives are spending time in home states and districts. Town halls, fundraisers, and various events around the state are the usual schedule. The Senate will reconvene on the Tuesday after Labor Day and the House on the following Monday.
While the Senators and Representatives are back in Kansas for a few weeks, this is a good time to touch base with them and share our thanks and our concerns about legislative actions that impact us.
The FAA Reauthorization Bill is H.R. 3935. The House passed this legislation right before they recessed for this break. After it came out of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a 63-0 vote, it passed the House 351-69, indicating a broad consensus.
The bill is 841 pages, but only a handful of those pages are of specific concern to us. NAAA’s efforts to get tower marking and drone language into the bill succeeded – pending the implementation of rules and regs to enact the requirements. Kansas members and staff helped NAAA liaison with Kansas House members Tracey Mann and Sharice Davids – both on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation. We also had productive meetings with the staff of the Committee – chaired by Rep. Sam Graves of the Missouri 6th District. Our relationship with Senator Marshall’s office has been helpful in facilitating communication with NAAA staff and as the bill is taken up by the Senate in September, we look forward to sharing our “home state” perspective with the Senator in support of the Reauthorization.
Again, the language included is important and encouraging – but translating that into tangible action on the part of the FAA is still ahead of us. The Flight Standards memo we saw earlier this summer indicates the challenges we have ahead of us in educating the FAA on the absolute necessity of rigorous standards on the marking of towers that are proliferating with the expanding broadband network and the integration of drones into the airspace we use in providing vital support to American agriculture.
I would urge everyone to get in touch with your Congressman’s district office to let them know we appreciate their efforts and that we need their help going forward.
Steve Hitchcock
Legislative Contacts
To see a list of Senate and House Committees including a Find Your Legislator search engine, http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/committees/standing/
https://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/members/ .