I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5105 

To require the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to respond to requests for information from Members of Congress, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 14, 2019 

Ms. SPEIER (for herself, Mr. CASE, Ms. NORTON, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. ROUDA, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. SUOZZI, 

Mr. RASKIN, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. SMITH of Washington, and Mr. NEGUSE) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 

Transportation and Infrastructure 

A BILL 

To require the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to respond to requests for information from 

Members of Congress, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Responsive Employees 

5 Support Productive Educated Congressional Talk Act’’ or 

6 the ‘‘RESPECT Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FAA RESPONSIVENESS TO CONGRESS. 

2 (a) PURPOSE.—This section is enacted pursuant to 

3 the legislative oversight responsibilities of Congress and 

4 to enable a Member of Congress to effectively represent 

5 their constituents and respond to constituent inquiries. 

6 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—If a Member of Congress sub7 mits to the FAA a written request for information on pro8 posed, previous, or current flight procedures or other data 

9 or information relating to the District of such Member, 

10 the following conditions apply: 

11 (1) DATA REQUEST.—Not later than 90 days 

12 after receipt of such request, the Administrator of 

13 the FAA shall substantively respond in writing with 

14 the requested data or information in the format re15 quested by the Member of Congress, if— 

16 (A) the data is within the control of the 

17 FAA; and 

18 (B) the data would be otherwise appro19 priate to provide if requested— 

20 (i) by an airline, an airport, a flight 

21 procedure proponent, an Aviation Round22 table, or anyone not employed by the FAA; 

23 or 

24 (ii) via a Freedom of Information re25 quest from any individual or any entity. 


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1 (2) NOTIFICATION.—If the Administrator does 

2 not provide the requested information pursuant to 

3 paragraph (1), the Administrator shall notify the re4 questing Member of Congress, Congress, and the 

5 Chairman and Ranking Member of the Transpor6 tation and Infrastructure Committee of the House of 

7 Representatives. 

8 (c) STAFFING OF MEETINGS.—If a Member of Con9 gress submits to the FAA a written request for the FAA 

10 to provide staff at a private or public meeting with the 

11 Member, the Administrator shall provide such staff if— 

12 (1) the request is made in writing at least 30 

13 days before the meeting date; and 

14 (2) the request is made on the same terms and 

15 conditions as specified by FAA appearances at Avia16 tion Roundtable meetings. 

17 (d) NOTIFICATION.—If the Administrator does not 

18 comply with a request made by a Member of Congress (as 

19 described in subsection (c)), the Administrator shall pro20 vide the requesting Member of Congress, Congress, and 

21 the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Transportation 

22 and Infrastructure Committee of the House of Represent23 atives with an explanation why the request will not be ful24 filled. 


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1 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi2 nitions apply: 

3 (1) FLIGHT PROCEDURE.—The term ‘‘flight 

4 procedure’’ means a preplanned Instrument Flight 

5 Rules (IFR) procedure published for pilot use, in 

6 graphic or textual format, that provides obstruction 

7 clearance from the terminal area to the en route 

8 structure (departure) or from the en route structure 

9 to the terminal area (arrival). 

10 (2) PROCEDURE PROPONENT.—The term ‘‘pro11 cedure proponent’’ means a person or entity pro12 posing a new or modified flight procedure. 

13 (3) AVIATION ROUNDTABLE.—The term ‘‘Avia14 tion Roundtable’’ means an organization designed to 

15 address community concerns over a sustained period 

16 of time regarding aircraft operations often associ17 ated with a nearby airport. 

Æ 


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