I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8589 

To direct the Secretary of Transportation to provide vouchers to air carriers 

to purchase more fuel-efficient and quieter aircraft, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 13, 2020 

Mr. ROUDA (for himself, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. CISNEROS, Ms. 

JUDY CHU of California, and Mr. RASKIN) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of Transportation to provide vouchers 

to air carriers to purchase more fuel-efficient and quieter 

aircraft, 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 ‘‘Aviation Industry As5 sistance for Cleaner and Quieter Skies Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. AVIATION INDUSTRY ASSISTANCE FOR CLEANER 

7 AND QUIETER SKIES VOUCHER PROGRAM. 

8 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall establish 

9 and carry out a program, to be known as the ‘‘Aviation 


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1 Industry Assistance for Cleaner and Quieter Skies Vouch2 er Program’’, under which the Secretary shall issue elec3 tronic vouchers to air carriers, subject to the specifications 

4 set forth in subsection (d), to offset the purchase or cost 

5 of a lease of eligible new aircraft in exchange for commit6 ments from such air carriers to decommission certain cur7 rently used aircraft and sell such aircraft for recycling of 

8 parts or disposal. 

9 (b) APPLICATION.—To be eligible for the program es10 tablished under subsection (a), an air carrier shall submit 

11 to the Secretary an application at such time, in such man12 ner, and containing such information as the Secretary may 

13 require, including a description of a currently used aircraft 

14 of the air carrier. 

15 (c) PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS.— 

16 (1) LIST OF ELIGIBLE AIRCRAFT.—In carrying 

17 out the program established under subsection (a), 

18 the Secretary, in consultation with the Adminis19 trator, shall prepare, maintain, publicize, and make 

20 available through a publicly available website, lists 

21 of— 

22 (A) applicable currently used aircraft; 

23 (B) eligible aircraft for purchase or lease; 

24 and 


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1 (C) registered aircraft recycling firms eligi2 ble to purchase currently used aircraft under 

3 this section. 

4 (2) COMMITMENT REQUIREMENT.—In carrying 

5 out the program established under subsection (a), 

6 the Secretary shall issue such regulations as are nec7 essary to establish requirements for an air carrier to 

8 purchase or lease an eligible aircraft described in 

9 subsection (a), including a timing requirement for 

10 the purchase of such, and decommissioning and sell11 ing of applicable currently used aircraft of the air 

12 carrier for recycling of parts or disposal, except as 

13 provided in subsection (f)(2). 

14 (d) VALUE OF VOUCHERS.—The Secretary may de15 termine the value of each voucher, not to exceed 

16 $10,000,000, based on the difference in emissions between 

17 the currently used aircraft being decommissioned and sold 

18 and the eligible aircraft being purchased or leased. In de19 termining the value of each voucher, the Secretary shall 

20 also consider if such eligible aircraft also include noise re21 duction, including whether such aircraft meet Stage 5 

22 standards. In addition, the Secretary shall consider seat 

23 capacity and typical stage length of both the currently 

24 used aircraft being decommissioned and sold and the eligiVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:13 Oct 31, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8589.IH H8589

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1 ble aircraft being purchased or leased in determining the 

2 value of the voucher. 

3 (e) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 180 days after 

4 the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue 

5 such regulations as are necessary to carry out this section, 

6 including a requirement that a voucher may be used only 

7 to pay a new aircraft order, not an order placed (even if 

8 not filled) before the date of enactment of this Act. 

9 (f) REGISTRATION.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall register 

11 aircraft recycling firms eligible to purchase currently 

12 used aircraft under this section and establish re13 quirements and procedures for the recycling of parts 

14 or disposal of such aircraft to ensure that such air15 craft are taken out of service and not used to de16 velop other aircraft with higher greenhouse gas 

17 emissions. 

18 (2) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding paragraph 

19 (1), in the case of an emergency declared by the Sec20 retary or a national emergency declared by the 

21 President, the Secretary may temporarily waive the 

22 provisions of such paragraph that prevent the use of 

23 aircraft taken out of service pursuant to this section 

24 for the purposes of responding to such emergency or 

25 national emergency. 


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1 (g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

2 authorized to carry out the program established under this 

3 section $1,000,000,000 and such sums shall remain avail4 able until expended. 

5 (h) DEFINITIONS.—In this section the following defi6 nitions apply: 

7 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis8 trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ9 mental Protection Agency. 

10 (2) AIR CARRIER.—The term ‘‘air carrier’’ has 

11 the meaning given such term in section 40102 of 

12 title 49, United States Code. 

13 (3) CURRENTLY USED AIRCRAFT.—The term 

14 ‘‘currently used aircraft’’ means— 

15 (A) aircraft in the bottom 25 percent of 

16 the air carrier’s aircraft fleet in terms of fuel 

17 efficiency per seat; and 

18 (B) aircraft that have been in service for 

19 at least 1,500 hours in the previous calendar 

20 year. 

21 (4) ELIGIBLE AIRCRAFT.—The term ‘‘eligible 

22 aircraft’’ means aircraft that must be new and con23 sidered by the Secretary highly fuel-efficient with 

24 some consideration given to their noise impact. 


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1 (5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

2 the Secretary of Transportation. 

Æ 


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