II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4979 

To establish an independent expert review panel to review and make findings 

and recommendations to inform the Federal Aviation Administration’s 

implementation of a comprehensive and integrated Safety Management 

System for all lines of business within the Federal Aviation Administration, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 1, 2024 

Ms. CANTWELL (for herself and Ms. DUCKWORTH) introduced the following 

bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 

Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To establish an independent expert review panel to review 

and make findings and recommendations to inform the 

Federal Aviation Administration’s implementation of a 

comprehensive and integrated Safety Management System for all lines of business within the Federal Aviation 

Administration, 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 ‘‘FAA SMS Compliance 

5 Review Act of 2024’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis4 trator’’ means the Administrator of the Federal 

5 Aviation Administration. 

6 (2) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON7 GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con8 gress’’ means the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

9 and Transportation of the Senate and the Com10 mittee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the 

11 House of Representatives. 

12 (3) FAA.—The term ‘‘FAA’’ means the Fed13 eral Aviation Administration. 

14 (4) SMS.—The term ‘‘SMS’’ means a Safety 

15 Management System. 

16 SEC. 3. EXPERT COMPLIANCE REVIEW OF FAA SAFETY 

17 MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. 

18 (a) EXPERT COMPLIANCE REVIEW.— 

19 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.— 

20 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days 

21 after the date of enactment of this section, the 

22 Administrator shall convene an independent ex23 pert panel (in this section referred to as the 

24 ‘‘review panel’’) to review and make findings 

25 and recommendations on the matters listed in 

26 paragraph (2). 


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1 (B) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the review 

2 panel is to review and evaluate FAA orders and 

3 policies to inform the FAA’s implementation of 

4 a comprehensive and integrated SMS for all 

5 lines of business within the FAA. 

6 (2) CONTENTS OF REVIEW.—The review panel 

7 shall review the following: 

8 (A) The extent to which the FAA’s SMS 

9 complies with relevant FAA orders and policies. 

10 (B) The actual and projected safety en11 hancements achieved through the FAA’s prior 

12 implementation of the SMS. 

13 (C) The effectiveness of the SMS, includ14 ing with respect to the implementation of the 

15 following 4 components: 

16 (i) Safety policy. 

17 (ii) Safety risk management. 

18 (iii) Safety assurance. 

19 (iv) Safety promotion. 

20 (D) The extent to which the SMS and each 

21 of the 4 components described in subparagraph 

22 (C) are integrated among all lines of business 

23 of the FAA. 

24 (E) The extent to which the SMS and each 

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1 stood and communicated to personnel at the 

2 FAA. 

3 (F) The efficacy of the FAA’s Voluntary 

4 Safety Reporting Program as part of the SMS, 

5 including any actions taken by the FAA in re6 sponse to reports filed under such program. 

7 (G) Whether the Federal Government 

8 should advocate for changes to Annex 19–Safe9 ty Management of the International Civil Avia10 tion Organization (in this section referred to as 

11 ‘‘ICAO’’) to ensure appropriate updates to the 

12 State Safety Program standards and rec13 ommended practices, including— 

14 (i) a systems-level approach to evalu15 ating and improving SMS for air naviga16 tion service providers; and 

17 (ii) the implementation of the SMS 

18 for civil aviation regulators. 

19 (H) Any other matter determined by the 

20 Administrator for which review by the review 

21 panel would be consistent with the public inter22 est in aviation safety. 

23 (3) COMPOSITION OF REVIEW PANEL.— 


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1 (A) APPOINTED MEMBERS.—The review 

2 panel shall consist of the following members ap3 pointed by the Administrator: 

4 (i) Two representatives of the Na5 tional Aeronautics and Space Administra6 tion with expertise in SMSs. 

7 (ii) Three appropriately qualified rep8 resentatives of aviation labor organizations, 

9 designated by the applicable represented 

10 organization. 

11 (iii) Not less than 5 independent sub12 ject matter experts in safety management 

13 systems who— 

14 (I) have not served as a political 

15 appointee in the FAA; and 

16 (II) have a minimum of 10 years 

17 of relevant applied experience. 

18 (iv) Three representatives from the 

19 aviation industry with expertise in safety 

20 management systems. 

21 (v) A representative of the United 

22 States Mission to the ICAO. 

23 (B) ADVISORY MEMBERS.— 

24 (i) IN GENERAL.—In addition to the 

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1 graph (A), the review panel shall be ad2 vised by up to 5 employees of the FAA, at 

3 least 3 of whom shall be subject matter ex4 perts in implementing SMS at the FAA. 

5 (ii) DUTIES.—The advisory members 

6 may take part in deliberations of the re7 view panel and provide subject matter ex8 pertise with respect to the review panel’s 

9 work. 

10 (4) RECOMMENDATIONS.—The review panel 

11 shall issue recommendations to the Administrator 

12 based on the review of the matters listed in para13 graph (2) in order to inform the FAA’s implementa14 tion of a comprehensive and integrated SMS for all 

15 lines of business within the FAA. 

16 (5) REPORT.— 

17 (A) SUBMISSION.—Not later than 180 

18 days after the date of the first meeting of the 

19 review panel, the review panel shall submit to 

20 the Administrator and the appropriate commit21 tees of Congress a report containing the find22 ings and recommendations regarding the mat23 ters listed in paragraph (2) that are endorsed 

24 by a majority of the review panel. 


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1 (B) DISSENTING VIEWS.—In submitting 

2 the report under subparagraph (A), the review 

3 panel shall append to such report the dissenting 

4 views of any individual member or group of 

5 members of the review panel regarding the find6 ings or recommendations of the review panel. 

7 (C) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 5 days 

8 after receiving the report under subparagraph 

9 (A), the Administrator shall publish such re10 port, including any dissenting views appended 

11 to the report, on the website of the FAA. 

12 (D) TERMINATION.—The review panel 

13 shall terminate upon the submission of the re14 port under subparagraph (A). 

15 (6) ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.— 

16 (A) ACCESS TO INFORMATION.— 

17 (i) IN GENERAL.—The review panel 

18 shall have the authority to perform the fol19 lowing actions if a majority of the review 

20 panel members consider each action nec21 essary and appropriate: 

22 (I) Entering onto the premises of 

23 the FAA for access to and inspection 

24 of records or other purposes. 


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1 (II) Notwithstanding any other 

2 provision of law, except as provided in 

3 clause (ii), accessing and inspecting 

4 unredacted records directly necessary 

5 for the completion of the review pan6 el’s work under this section that are 

7 in the possession of the FAA. 

8 (III) Interviewing employees of 

9 the FAA as necessary for the review 

10 panel to complete its work. 

11 (ii) NON-FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

12 MEMBERS.—Members of the review panel 

13 who are not officers or employees of the 

14 Federal Government shall only have access 

15 to, and be allowed to inspect, information 

16 provided to the FAA pursuant to section 

17 40123 of title 49, United States Code, and 

18 part 193 of title 14, Code of Federal Regu19 lations, in a de-identified form. 

20 (B) NONDISCLOSURE OF CONFIDENTIAL

21 INFORMATION.— 

22 (i) NONDISCLOSURE FOR NON-FED23 ERAL GOVERNMENT MEMBERS.— 

24 (I) NON-FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

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1 pating on the review panel, each indi2 vidual serving on the review panel rep3 resenting a non-Federal entity shall 

4 execute an agreement with the Admin5 istrator in which the individual shall 

6 be prohibited from disclosing at any 

7 time, except as required by law, to 

8 any person, foreign or domestic, any 

9 non-public information made available 

10 to the panel under subparagraph (A). 

11 (II) FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

12 PARTICIPANTS.—Federal officers or 

13 employees serving on the review panel 

14 as representatives of the Federal Gov15 ernment and subject to the require16 ment to protect confidential informa17 tion (including proprietary informa18 tion and trade secrets under section 

19 1905 of title 18, United States Code) 

20 shall not be required to execute agree21 ments under this clause. 

22 (ii) PROTECTION OF INFORMATION.— 

23 Information that is obtained or reviewed 

24 by the review panel shall not constitute a 

25 waiver of the protections applicable to the 


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1 information under section 552 of title 5, 

2 United States Code (commonly referred to 

3 as the ‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’). 

4 Members of the review panel shall protect 

5 such information to the extent permitted 

6 under applicable law. 

7 (iii) PROTECTION OF PROPRIETARY

8 INFORMATION AND TRADE SECRETS.— 

9 Members of the review panel shall protect 

10 proprietary information, trade secrets, and 

11 other information otherwise exempt under 

12 section 552 of title 5, United States Code, 

13 to the extent permitted under applicable 

14 law. 

15 (7) INAPPLICABILITY OF FACA.—The review 

16 panel shall not be subject to chapter 10 of title 5, 

17 United States Code (commonly referred to as the 

18 ‘‘Federal Advisory Committee Act’’). 

19 (8) PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS.—Not later than 

20 1 year after the submission of the recommendations 

21 under paragraph (4), the Administrator shall report 

22 to the appropriate committees of Congress on the 

23 status of any ongoing actions in response to such 

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1 tation of each of the recommendations of the review 

2 panel, if any, with which the Administrator concurs. 

3 (b) NON-CONCURRENCE WITH RECOMMENDA4 TIONS.—Not later than 6 months after submission of the 

5 recommendations under subsection (a)(4), with respect to 

6 each recommendation of the review panel with which the 

7 Administrator does not concur, if any, the Administrator 

8 shall publish on the website of the FAA and submit to 

9 the appropriate committees of Congress a detailed expla10 nation for such determination, including if the Adminis11 trator believes implementation of such recommendation 

12 would not improve aviation safety. 

13 SEC. 4. FAA’S SAFETY RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESSES. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

15 date of enactment of this section, the Administrator shall 

16 develop and implement effective processes for performing 

17 root cause analyses to identify opportunities for improve18 ment in executing the regulatory oversight responsibilities 

19 of the FAA. 

20 (b) BRIEFING.—Not later than 30 days after the date 

21 described in subsection (a), the Administrator shall brief 

22 the appropriate committees of Congress on the processes 

23 implemented under such subsection. 


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1 SEC. 5. FAA PRODUCTION AUDITS. 

2 Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment 

3 of this section, the Administrator shall revise the produc4 tion audit procedures of the FAA to— 

5 (1) provide not more than 7 days advance no6 tice to a production certificate holder or supplier 

7 that the FAA will conduct an audit of the holder’s 

8 or supplier’s facilities; and 

9 (2) direct inspectors to audit systemic compli10 ance with quality system elements identified in sec11 tion 21.137 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, 

12 in addition to compliance with individual require13 ments of the holder’s quality system. 

Æ 


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