SE North Carolina News

The U.S. Senate has passed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act, a legislative package that includes nearly two dozen provisions secured by Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) for the benefit of North Carolina and the flying public.

The final Senate package includes support for Boom Supersonic, which is building its facility in Greensboro; support for North Carolina’s growing UAS industry; reforms to FAA’s remote tower program, which will help pave the way for a remote tower at Concord-Padgett Regional Airport; and additional funding for North Carolina’s 72 public airports.

Senator Budd expressed his satisfaction with the passage of the act, stating, “I am happy to see the FAA Reauthorization pass the U.S. Senate. The package includes several wins for North Carolina, boosts safety for the flying public, and supports the expansion of America’s aviation industry. I look forward to seeing the package signed into law.”

Key priorities added to the package at Senator Budd's behest include expanding the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), introducing new regulations requiring high-altitude balloons to be equipped with tracking systems under the Seeing Objects at Altitude Regularly (SOAR) Act, streamlining environmental reviews of drone operations, protecting general aviation airports from closure, improving oversight of designated pilot examiners (DPEs), establishing an internal regulatory process review team at FAA, mitigating aircraft registration backlog issues due to COVID-19 staffing problems, increasing competitiveness in American drone operations through codified recommendations made by Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee, expediting rulemaking on BVLOS operations, reforming State Block Grant Program Administration and directing FAA to continue America's leadership in developing civilian supersonic aircraft.

Additionally, it creates an Aviation Medical Innovation and Modernization Working Group to address delays in processing Medical Certification Special Issuance requests and revises sec. 620 AIP amendments on aviation fuel.