Title: Decrease Noise Levels Act
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works

Summary:
Decrease Noise Levels Act
This bill directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to revise its regulations to decrease the threshold for the day-night average sound level that constitutes significant noise from 65 decibels to 60 decibels, and adjust relative ranges of day-night average sound level accordingly.
Additionally, the FAA must

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5874 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5874

To require the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to 
amend regulations concerning the day-night average sound level, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 12, 2020

  Ms. Meng (for herself, Mr. Smith of Washington, Mr. Espaillat, Ms. 
Brownley of California, Mr. Beyer, Mr. Raskin, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Suozzi, 
 Mr. Malinowski, Ms. Waters, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Judy Chu of California, 
  Mr. Sherman, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. 
Schiff, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Meeks) 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 
amend regulations concerning the day-night average sound level, 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 ``Decrease Noise Levels Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The day-night average sound level represents the total 
        accumulation of all sound energy averaged over a 24-hour 
        period.
            (2) The current Federal Aviation Administration guidelines 
        for the day-night average sound level are 65.
            (3) Excessive airplane noise has been shown to negatively 
        effect hypertension, heart disease, learning deficits in 
        children, sleep patterns, sleep quality, and overall mood.
            (4) Approximately 10,000,000 Americans who are afflicted 
        with some hearing loss can at least partially attribute this 
        damage to exposure from noise.
            (5) Aircraft and airport noise is one of the most common 
        ``quality of life'' nuisance issues in neighborhoods throughout 
        the United States.

SEC. 3. DAY-NIGHT AVERAGE SOUND LEVEL REDUCTION.

    The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall 
amend part 150 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, to decrease 
the threshold for the day-night average sound level to constitute 
significant noise from 65 to 60, and adjust relative ranges of day-
night average sound level accordingly.

SEC. 4. COMMUNITY OUTREACH REGARDING DAY-NIGHT AVERAGE SOUND LEVELS.

    The Secretary shall ensure that in carrying out community outreach 
related to aviation day-night average sound levels, such outreach 
contains the results of the evaluation of alternative metrics to the 
current average day-night level standard under section 188 of the FAA 
Reauthorization Act of 2018 and the evaluation of alternative metrics 
carried out under section 173 of such Act.

SEC. 5. STRATEGY AND REPORTING.

    Not later than 365 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall create a 
publicly available report that outlines a strategy to reduce the 
maximum day-night average sound level in all residential areas to 55 
over the 10 years following the date of enactment of this Act.
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