Safety is Not for Sale Act of 2019

Bill: 116-hr-5401
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9]
Introduced: 2019-12-11
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures

Aviation and airports

Congressional oversight

Department of Transportation

Fires

Government information and archives

Performance measurement

Transportation safety and security
Latest action: action_date: 2019-12-12
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Aviation.

Summaries:
action_date: 2019-12-11
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>Safety is Not for Sale Act of 2019 </b></p> <p>This bill directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require aircraft manufacturers to offer or provide non-required safety enhancing equipment without an additional charge to an air carrier.</p> <p>The FAA must implement a program to identify, classify, and approve certain non-required safety enhancing equipment.</p> <p>The FAA must also establish performance standards for aircraft angle of attack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup fire suppressions systems.</p>

tv_txt: I 116th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 5401 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES December 11, 2019 Mr. Cohen introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To require aircraft manufacturers to offer or provide non-required safety enhancing equipment of an aircraft without additional charge to an air carrier, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Safety is Not for Sale Act of 2019 . 2. Definitions In this Act: (1) Administrator The term Administrator means the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. (2) Air carrier The term air carrier has the meaning given that term in section 40102 of title 49, United States Code. (3) Angle of attack indicator The term angle of attack indicator means an instrument that provides a visual indication of the amount of lift an aircraft is generating at a given airspeed or angle of bank. (4) Backup fire suppression systems The term backup fire suppression systems means safety features that provide additional firefighting capability to required systems that are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. (5) Covered air carrier The term covered air carrier means an air carrier operating under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations. (6) Covered manufacturer The term covered manufacturer means an entity that manufactures or otherwise produces aircraft operating under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, and holds a production certificate under section 44704(c) of title 49, United States Code. (7) Disagree alerts The term disagree alerts means an indication to one or more crewmembers that may be visual, aural, or indicated by some other means, when two or more redundant aircraft safety-critical sensors are providing different readings. (8) Non-required safety enhancing equipment The term non-required safety enhancing equipment means an apparatus, item, software, alert, or system that is not required by any Federal regulations and measurably increases aircraft safety, including any— (A) traffic advisory system; (B) terrain advisory; (C) attitude indicator; (D) weather advisory; (E) crashworthiness improvement; (F) configuration advisory; (G) supplemental indicator; (H) monitoring or detection system; (I) extinguishing system; and (J) stability and control apparatus, item, alert, or system. 3. Requirement to offer or provide non-required safety enhancing equipment of an aircraft (a) Requirement Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall require a covered manufacturer to offer or provide non-required safety enhancing equipment without an additional charge to a covered air carrier. (b) Non-Required safety enhancing equipment program To carry out the requirement in subsection (a), the Administrator shall create and implement a program to identify, classify, and approve non-required safety enhancing equipment that— (1) has a variety of safety benefits, including (but not limited to)— (A) increasing overall situational awareness; (B) providing additional information other than the aircraft primary system; (C) providing independent warning, cautionary, or advisory indications; and (D) providing additional occupant safety protection; (2) is determined to be a minor change to type design; and (3) mitigates a non-essential function failure condition. (c) Equipment approval The Administrator shall identify, classify, and approve non-required safety enhancing equipment that— (1) has met or exceeded minimum design requirements to assure the effective operation of the non-required safety enhancing equipment; (2) has met or exceeded safety objectives to ensure non-required safety enhancing equipment enhances safety and is complementary to required equipment; and (3) has a completed safety evaluation that considers— (A) whether the non-required safety enhancing equipment requires pilot and crewmember training, taking into account the architecture, functionality, operational capabilities and limitations of the non-required safety enhancing equipment, and assurances that all foreseeable failure conditions have been identified and assessed; and (B) interactions and operational interfaces related to human factors. 4. Non-required safety enhancing equipment reporting requirement (a) Reporting requirement The Administrator shall— (1) require a covered manufacturer to submit to the Administrator, not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act and every year thereafter, a list of all non-required safety enhancing equipment the covered manufacturer offers to covered air carriers, without regard to whether any such equipment has been approved under the process established under section 2, that includes the information specified in subsection (b); and (2) publish on a public website, and make accessible to the general public, each such list submitted. (b) Content requirements With respect to each non-required safety enhancing equipment a covered manufacturer includes in any list submitted in accordance with subsection (a), the covered manufacturer shall describe in detail how the equipment— (1) increases overall situational awareness; (2) provides additional information other than the aircraft primary system; (3) provides independent warning, cautionary, or advisory indications; and (4) provides additional occupant safety protection. 5. Required performance standards for angle of attack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup fire suppression systems (a) Development and certification requirements (1) Deadline for implementation Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall— (A) establish performance standards applicable to angle of attack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup fire suppression systems for aircraft operating under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations; and (B) implement procedures for covered manufacturers to obtain certification for angle of attack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup fire suppression systems for such aircraft that meet such performance standards as a condition of holding a production certificate under section 44704(c) of title 49, United States Code. (2) Monthly progress reports During the 1-year period that begins on the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit monthly reports to Congress on the progress being made to carry out the requirements of paragraph (1). (b) Installation and operation The Administrator shall require by regulation that, not later than 30 months after the date certification procedures are implemented in accordance with paragraph (1)(B), angle of attack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup fire suppression systems that are certified as meeting the applicable performance standards established under paragraph (1)(A) are installed and operated on each aircraft operating under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations.