Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, of Oklahoma, and Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois, have introduced a bill they say will streamline funding for general aviation airports. It would also formally enshrine in legislation the building of homebuilt aircraft as an “aeronautical activity” to eliminate any bureaucratic interpretation on doing that work at an airport. The Forward Looking Investment in General Aviation, Hangars and Tarmacs (FLIGHT) Act of 2017 was introduced last week and would extend some procedural advantages used to expedite projects at big airport to regional and local airports. “Our general aviation airports are vital to aviation safety and positively impact the efficiency of large commercial airports, emergency medical operations, law enforcement activities and agriculture and small businesses activities throughout the United States,”Inhofe said.
The new law, if enacted, would allow GA airports more time to accumulate FAA funding for projects “and ensures available discretionary funding originally set aside for GA airports remains available for projects at GA airports through a nationally competitive process.” It will also allow GA airports access to expedited and coordinated environmental assessment and approval processes, identify certain facilities as “disaster relief airports” and open up the pool of money available for emergency preparedness. “The FLIGHT Actaddresses the growing needs of our nation’s system of airports by providing the FAA with long overdue flexibility it needs to fund important projects,” said Mark Baker, president and CEO, AOPA.
An earlier version incorrectly identified Duckworth as a Republican.
