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[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1848 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1848

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 17, 2013

    Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

 
To ensure that the Federal Aviation Administration advances the safety 
   of small airplanes, and the continued development of the general 
               aviation industry, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 
2013''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) A healthy small aircraft industry is integral to 
        economic growth and to maintaining an effective transportation 
        infrastructure for communities and nations around the world.
            (2) Small aircraft comprise nearly 90 percent of FAA type 
        certified general aviation aircraft.
            (3) General aviation provides for the cultivation of a 
        workforce of engineers, manufacturing and maintenance 
        professionals, and pilots, who secure the Nation's economic 
        success and defense.
            (4) General aviation contributes to well-paying 
        manufacturing and technology jobs in the United States, and 
        these products are exported in great numbers, providing a 
        positive trade balance.
            (5) Technology developed and proven in general aviation 
        aids in the success and safety of all sectors of aviation and 
        scientific competence.
            (6) The average small airplane in the United States is now 
        40 years old and the regulatory barriers to bringing new 
        designs to market are resulting in a lack of innovation and 
        investment in small airplane design.
            (7) Over the past decade, the United States has typically 
        lost 10,000 active private pilots per year, partially due to a 
        lack of cost-effective, new small airplanes.
            (8) General aviation safety can be improved by modernizing 
        and revamping the regulations for this sector to clear the path 
        for technology adoption and cost-effective means to retrofit 
        the existing fleet with new safety technologies.

SEC. 3. FAA SAFETY AND REGULATORY IMPROVEMENTS FOR GENERAL AVIATION.

    (a) Establishment of FAA Safety and Regulatory Improvements for 
General Aviation.--The Administrator shall advance the safety and 
continued development of small airplanes by reorganizing the 
certification requirements applicable to small airplanes to streamline 
the approval of safety advancements.
    (b) Regulations.--The Administrator shall issue a final rule based 
on the FAA's Part 23 Reorganization Aviation Rulemaking Committee 
(established in August 2011) by December 31, 2015. The final rule shall 
meet the following objectives of the Part 23 Committee:
            (1) Create a regulatory regime for small airplanes that 
        will improve safety and decrease certification costs.
            (2) Set broad, outcome-driven safety objectives that will 
        spur innovation and technology adoption.
            (3) Replace current, prescriptive requirements contained in 
        FAA rules with performance-based regulations.
            (4) Use FAA-accepted consensus standards to clarify how the 
        part 23 safety objectives may be met by specific designs and 
        technologies.
    (c) Consensus-Based Standards.--The Administrator shall use 
acceptable consensus-based standards whenever possible in the spirit of 
the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1996 (15 U.S.C. 
3701 note), while continuing traditional methods for meeting part 23.
    (d) Safety Cooperation.--The Administrator shall lead the effort to 
improve general aviation safety by working with leading aviation 
regulators to assist them in adopting a complementary regulatory 
approach for small airplanes.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act, the following definitions apply:
            (1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the 
        Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.
            (2) Consensus standards.--The term ``consensus standards'' 
        means standards developed by voluntary organizations which 
        plan, develop, establish, or coordinate voluntary standards 
        using agreed-upon procedures, both domestic and international. 
        These standards include provisions requiring that owners of 
        relevant intellectual property agree to make that intellectual 
        property available on a nondiscriminatory, royalty-free or 
        reasonable-royalty basis to all interested parties. These 
        bodies have the attributes of openness, balance of interest, 
        due process, an appeals process, and consensus.
            (3) FAA.--The term ``FAA'' means the Federal Aviation 
        Administration.
            (4) General aviation.--The term ``general aviation'' means 
        all aviation activities other than scheduled commercial airline 
        operations and military aviation.
            (5) Part 23.--The term ``part 23'' means part 23 of title 
        14, Code of Federal Regulations.
            (6) Small airplane.--The term ``small airplane'' means FAA 
        type certificated airplanes that meet the parameters of part 23 
        of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations.

            Passed the House of Representatives July 16, 2013.

            Attest:

                                                 KAREN L. HAAS,

                                                                 Clerk.
```